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THE STATE OF PARA 



NOTES FOR 
THE EXPOSITION OF CHICAGO 



AS AUTHORIZED BY 

THE GOVERNOR OF PARA, BRAZIL 
DR. LAURO SODRE 



NEW YORK 
1893 



/ 



THE STATE OF PARA 



NOTES FOR 
THE EXPOSITION OF CHICAGO 



AS AUTHORIZED BY 

THE GOVERNOR OF PARA, BRAZIL, 
DR. LAURO SODRE 

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NEW YORK 
1893 



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COPYRIGHT, 1893 
BY 

BARON DE MARAJO 



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Electrotyped, Printed and Bound by 

Ube "ffmicfeerbocfeer ipress, mew Jgorft 
G. P. Putnam's Sons 



LIST OF CONTRIBUTORS. 



PART I. 

. PAGE 

HISTORY OF PARA. Ignacio Baptista de 

Moura, C.E I 

PART II. 

PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION. Henrique A. de 

Santa Rosa, C.E 17 

PART III. 
PUBLIC INSTRUCTION. Alexandre V. Ta- 

VARES, M.D. 73 

PART IV. 

PUBLIC REVENUES AND COMMERCE. 

Pedro da Cunha 91 

PART V. 
INDUSTRIES. Ignacio B. de Moura, C.E. . 121 

WAYS OF COMMUNICATION AND TRANS- 
PORT. Manoel Odorico Nina Ribeiro, C. E. 130 

AGRICULTURE. Alberto Torrezao, C.E. . 138 



ILLUSTRATIONS. 



Facing page 

Interior of the Cathedral 2 

Map of the City of Para 28 

Theatre of Paz 74 

Avenue of the Republic, with Theatre of Paz, 92 

Municipal Building and Palace of the Governor, 98 

Interior of Theatre of Paz 116 

View of a Commercial Point of Para (Ver-o-Peso), i 30 

Map of the State of Para 152 



PART I. 
HISTORY OF PARA. 




INTERIOR OF THE CATHEDRAL. 



HISTORY OF PARA 

FROM ITS FOUNDATION, IN 1816, TO THE PRESENT DAY. 

ORELLANA, a Spanish adventurer, who had followed Gon- 
zalo Pizarro in his expedition to the country of cinnamon, 
abandoned his companions, and came down, it is supposed, 
about the year 1560, by the river Napo, to the Amazon. 

His report of the " sea-river " was little less than fabulous. 
He had seen there, he said, a nation of fighting-women — the 
Amazons, — from whom, indeed, is derived the name of the 
river. 

To him may be attributed the legend of that lake called 
in the Spanish tongue El Dorado, the sands and margins 
of which were laminated with gold, and whose site for more 
than a century was sought after by adventurers of many 
nations. 

The lands of Brazil last colonized by the Portuguese were 
those of the north, whence sprung forth the states of Mara- 
nham, Para, and Amazon. 

French, English, and Hollander had preceded them, es- 
tablishing barracks on the margins of the great river. 

Since the year 1600 the ambitious merchants of Flessinga 
(Holland), in successive expeditions, endeavored to establish 
plantations on the Amazon, and on one of the branches of 
the great river built up the forts of Orange and Nassau. 
The English and French had other fortifications which were 
taken and demolished by the Portuguese. 

Sir Walter Raleigh, an English navigator, in a voyage to 
the Orinoco in 1595, imparted the news that the French, 
under the pretext of looking for gold, were exploring these 
lands. 

Of all those forgotten explorers, only the name of M. de 

3 



4 The State of Par d. 

La Ravardiere remains indelibly associated with the dis- 
covery of Para. 

In 1605 he returned from his first expedition to the Guy- 
ana, to Europe, and in 161 2 he left France for the third 
time, and under the protection of his queen started for 
Maranham ; — that state being already colonized by French- 
men. The following year he left for Para, accompanied by 
soldiers and Indians, with the view of taking absolute pos- 
session of that region for his sovereign. 

The Portuguese, however, endeavored to conquer what 
in reality belonged to them by right of treaty. 

Alexander de Moura, after taking Maranham in 1614 
from the French, and imprisoning Ravardiere, immediately 
sent Francisco Caldeira Castello Branco as commander-in- 
chief to attempt the conquest of the lands of Para. 

Castello Branco, with three caravels, or light ships, started 
from Maranham on the 25th of November, 161 5, and in the 
beginning of the following year he laid the foundations of 
the city of Belttn or Pard, the capital of the state. 

Para was then inhabited by several tribes of Indians, 
altogether numbering thousands, who fought bloodthirsty 
battles with one another. 

The NheengahibaSy an industrious and valorous Indian 
tribe, ruled over the island of Marajo. Their drawings of 
igacabas (large jars) remain to this day, calling up traces of 
that ancient people which numbered 40,000 souls. 

Little of importance can be recorded in those early years 
of colonization ; they passed between depositions of gov- 
ernors and intrigues of colonists and missionaries and the 
metropolitan government. 

Castello Branco himself was deposed, imprisoned, and 
sent to Lisbon. 

From the men who succeeded him unworthily in the 
government can be detached only the sympathetic figure of 
Pedro Teixeira, who in 1637 was the chief of the Portu- 
guese expedition that ascended the Amazon to Quito ; who 
buried on the margins of the Napo the landmarks that lim- 
ited the Portuguese possessions of Brazil. 



History of Para. 5 

From this voyage, which lasted two years, the first scien- 
tific notes of the great river and a geographical map of the 
region were sent to Europe. 

In 1640 Pedro Teixeira took charge of the government, 
which position he retained a little over a year. 

At this time the enslavement of Indians, called ransom, 
was commenced in Amazonian lands. 

The Jesuits, heralds of the dawn of civilization, in the 
beginning were apologists of slavery, but in the end apostles 
of abolitionism ! 

Father Antonio Vieira was himself the principal preacher 
in this crusade. 

Fortunately the determination of the pontine bull (of De- 
cember 20, 1 741), through a decree countersigned by the 
Marquis de Pombal, announcing the freedom of the Indians 
and their rights to the honors, privileges, and liberties of 
other Portuguese subjects, was put into execution. 

Until 1641 Para was under the government of Maranham, 
and the administration of a governor; but Pedro Maciel 
having been appointed that year independent governor, it 
became an independent province. To this may be attributed 
its conquest in the following year, and almost without effort 
on the part of the Hollanders, who, however, within one 
year's time voluntarily abandoned it. 

Para went back again to the dependence of Maranham, 
under which it remained until 1652, when the metropolis 
appointed as its first governor Ignacio do Rego Barreto, a 
man of advanced ideas. 

In 1649 the General Commercial Company of Brazil was 
organized in Portugal. It became extinct in 1720, in the 
north, at the time of its greatest prosperity. It held the 
monopoly of commerce on condition of the transportation 
of the authorities to Brazil, and the defence of the territory 
against foreign invasion, and for this purpose it possessed 
a navy of thirty-one ships, armed and equipped at its own 
expense. 

This company, to whom the country is indebted for very 
little in the way of improvement, committed abuses that 



6 The State of Par d. 

created general antipathy, and gave rise to insurrections, of 
which the most serious was the one known as the Beckman 
insurrection, in 1681. The people of the interior were at 
that time instructed by Catholic missionaries. 

Among the most notable of those laboring in the High 
Tapajos was the Father Antonio de Villela, but at the same 
time the high Tocantins was made the inroad of the ex- 
plorers, known by the name of bandeiristas (flag-men), who 
were in search of gold. 

The French at that time were eager to conquer the left 
margin of the mouth of the Amazon, which they really did, 
seizing Macapa in 1691, under the command of the gov- 
ernor of Cayenne, the MARQUIS OF FERROL; thence be- 
ing expelled within a few months by the Portuguese captain, 
Fundao. 

Towards the end of the seventeenth century, municipalism 
in Para at last awakened into life, protecting the north against 
the Dutch invasion, and even reaching the point of forming 
its government. 

Para elected two deputies to represent her at Maranham. 

As soon as they comprehended that this state intended to 
absorb all the activity of the new captaincy (the ancient 
division of Brazil), they refused in spite of all threats to go. 

With the beginning of the seventeenth century, the Soci- 
ety of Para (sociedade paraense) commenced its real forma- 
tion : dissensions ceased, administration became stable, and 
law more firmly established ; nearly all villages and cities of 
the captaincy, or province, were founded, and towards the end 
of the seventeenth century it formed with Maranham a 
single government. 

The treaty which determined the limits of Brazil in Pard, 
with the neighboring possessions being signed, all fears of 
foreign invasion came to an end, and the productions of the 
state increased. 

Cacao, vanilla, and indigo were gathered ; coffee was 
planted : Pard became the first market of Brazil, and the 
number of voyages to Portugal also increased. 

In 1702 cattle raising was commenced in the island of 



History of Para. y 

Marajo, in which labor the Friars of Mercy took the greatest 
share, establishing immense farms, which afterwards passed 
to the country's domains, and at present belong to the state. 

In twenty years after this organization Para" had a suffi- 
cient quantity of cattle for consumption, and in fifty years 
there were in Marajo* over forty thousand head of cattle. 

The militia of the state at that time was also organized, 
and several native corps were formed. 

Metal coin was then brought into circulation ; for up to 
this time clews of cotton were used, and in some parts cacao 
fruits, for commercial exchange or barter. 

The mouth of the capital's port and several points at the 
frontier were fortified, and in 1721, the state custom-house 
department, and the Board of Public Health were organized. 

Thus was the administration of the governor, BERNARDO 
Pereira Berredo, made a distinguished one ; he also wrote 
a book entitled Historical Annals of Mar anham, to which 
Pard was then annexed, and another on the Chronology of 
Pard. 

In 1723 the Catholic bishopric of the state was created, 
whose religion rendered all important services, especially 
towards the Indians. The Jesuits invented a general lan- 
guage to be taught to all tribes, and one of them, Father 
Malagrida, founded in 1745 the seminary of Pard, where 
a large portion of the youth of Pard have been instructed. 

Three years later, in 1748, the foundation of the famous 
cathedral of Belem was laid, which, since its completion (a 
work in great part due to the zeal and devotion of the late 
revered Bishop Macedo Costa), has become the most 
sumptuous Catholic temple of all Brazil. 

The Company of Jesus ultimately pushed on the adminis- 
trative intrigues, placed obstacles in the way of the delinea- 
tion of the frontiers, delayed and embarrassed the royal 
decisions, and gave rise to their own annihilation in the 
state. 

In 1 741 the great scientist La CONDAMINE arrived in 
Para, on his return from a commission on which he was sent 
with several other French and Spanish astronomers, for the 



8 The State of Para, 

purpose of organizing geodesic observations in order to de- 
termine the real form of the earth. 

This savant made scientific analyses and wrote important 
scientific works concerning the region, giving information to 
European countries of its principal natural products, amongst 
which ranks rubber, which up to that date was unknown. 

Gaspar de Lima discovered quinine in the country, and 
explorations for gold were made in theTapaj(5s River ; Joao 
de Azevedo came down from Matto-Grosso, and verified the 
fact that a communication through that river with the state 
was possible. 

It is only now, however, that studies have been made for 
the laying of a railroad in that direction. 

Mendon£A Furtado in 1751 took charge of the govern- 
ment of Pard. He was the Marquis de Pombal's brother, 
who was then minister of the kingdom. His administra- 
tion was a very successful one. He extended means of in- 
struction to the natives and organized judiciary power. He 
attempted in Para the system of military colonization, send- 
ing to Europe for regiments of soldiers, the greatest part of 
whom were agriculturists, and to whom he gave lands for 
cultivation, as well as to the Indians, whom they taught, 
paying them wages. 

The military colonies of Araguaya and Araguary date 
from that time. 

As importation increased, the General Commercial Com- 
pany of Maranham was established, which, while it brought 
about some improvements, unfortunately introduced slavery 
into Para, bringing hither some 3,000 African slaves. 

Agriculture became paralyzed, causing the Portuguese 
colonists to throw all their energies into commerce, a fact to 
be deplored to the present day ! 

This company was closed in 1778. 

By this time the monumental palace of the government, 
the first of Brazil, designed by the engineer Lande, was con- 
structed. 

The marshes that covered a great part of the capital were 
drained, through plans of the engineer Gronfeliz. He 



History of Para. 9 

opened canals and ditches, through which the marshy waters 
were turned into the rivers Guamd, Guajard, and Reducto 
creek. 

After this the first industrial establishments of the state 
were founded ; and, in 1767 the state of Amazon was separated 
from that of Para, forming an independent captaincy, which, 
through the independence of Brazil, constituted, with all her 
territory, until within a few years, a single province. 

In 1 76 1 a stock for large naval constructions was built, 
the origin of the actual navy-yard, in which can now be 
found all necessary improvements. 

Since its foundations, many men-of-war and gunboats — 
and recently the gunboat Mandos — have been constructed. 

In the same year, in the Cathedral Square, the Military 
Hospital was also founded, there is also situated the Ar- 
senal of War, close to the place, where, later on, Bishop 
Friar Caetano Brandao erected the Holy House of Mercy, 
whose Catholic brotherhood is now secularized, and is con- 
structing under the plan of the engineer Nina Ribeiro a 
spacious hospital in Santa Luzia Square. 

The eighteenth century closed with a series of boundary 
works by Spanish and Portuguese commissioners, who de- 
termined the Peruvian frontiers, elucidating, at the same 
time, the treaty of 1777, by which the Portuguese crown 
was despoiled of a great part of its territory, and that treaty 
of Utrecht, in which the Oyapock was marked as the limit 
of Brazil with the Guyanas. Of these studies and explora- 
tions works were published, the most reliable of which is the 
Chorography of the engineer Brann. 

The first census was taken in 1800. The total population 
of the province was then 80,000 inhabitants, of which 12,000 
belonged to the capital. In 1864 the population of Para 
was 300,000, and of its capital 32,000 ; to-day the state has 
a population of 500,000 and its capital 70,000. 

The estates of the Friars of Mercy and of the Jesuits 
have been secularized, some having been appropriated for 
pious institutions, and others for public buildings. 

The means of public instruction have been enlarged ; an 



io The State of Para. 

agricultural school, comprising practical instruction, was 
afterwards projected, which under the present administration 
of Governor Sodre is to be realized. 

There was also a Military School, including in its course 
two years of mathematical instruction. 

With the removal of the court of D. John VI. to Brazil, 
everything improved. 

Para was elevated to the rank of a province of the United 
Kingdom of Portugal, Brazil, and Algarves ; taxes were 
regulated, dwelling-taxes collected, and the number of pub- 
lic functionaries was increased. 

To revenge Bonaparte's invasion of Portugal, the king, 
in 1808, ordered a division of soldiers from Para to take pos- 
session of Cayenne, which they accordingly did with much 
distinction and bravery, only delivering it up again in 18 17. 

As a remuneration for this service, the first concession of 
lands was granted to the province. 

The custom-house department was reformed, and com- 
merce with foreign nations was enlarged. 

From this progress arose the first impulse of independence. 

At first Para feared its subjection to the central govern- 
ment, thence the insurrection of 1821, in favor of the Portu- 
guese charter, which had as its victory the acclamation of a 
governmental Junta. A deputation was sent to swear, in 
the name of the people, fidelity to the king. 

Of this Junta the student Felippe Patroni was a member. 
He was a heedless agitator, and almost immediately himself 
turned against that same metropolitan government, and 
ended by becoming an aimless republican. 

He published the first daily paper in the city, and gave it 
the name of Paraense, from which sprung the first germs 
of Para republicanism. 

Brazil had already, since 1822, become independent of 
Portugal, when, on March 1, 1823, the adherents to Portu- 
gal reattempted a revolution, which failed, and those impli- 
cated therein were deported to Europe. 

Canon Baptista Campos, another popular agitator, 
figured as the chief of the national party. 



History of Para. 1 1 

At last, on the 16th of August, 1823, intimidated by the 
presence of a man-of-war, commanded by John Greenfell, 
the governmental Junta acclaimed in 1821 capitulated, and 
accepted the independence of Brazil and the government of 
D. Pedro I. 

The retrogrades continued to hold official positions, which 
exasperated the patriots of independence and caused con- 
tinual insurrections, of which the most tragic was that of 
October 16th of the same year: 256 prisoners were forced 
into the hold of the ship Palhago, and met their death there 
by asphyxiation. 

There was a general indignation and outcry that spread to 
the interior and kindled into life the republican spirit, which 
was propagated by the only press of the state. 

The 1st of May, 1824, had already been marked for the 
outbreak of a revolution that should annex Para to the 
northern provinces, forming the celebrated Confederation of 
the Equator, when, the day before, arrived the first president 
appointed by the imperial charter, Dr. Jos£ de Araujo 
Roso. 

The government of Rio, to satisfy those ideas of self- 
government manifested in Para, gave to the first presidents 
the greatest possible executive powers, which were restricted 
in proportion as the province developed, until the Republic, 
in 1889, brought them to a greater perfection. 

Roso gave himself over to the same coterie that governed, 
and his adversaries, without resource or hope, created 
themselves demagogues. 

There were revolts in several parts of the interior, and 
while the authorities proceeded from one abuse to another, 
anarchy invaded all spirits, and, aided by religious fanaticism, 
burst forth, in 1835, into the revolution of the Cabanagem, 
that filled with bloodshed and horror the entire province, 
marking an epoch of terror. At the head of this revolution 
were Edward Angelim and the two Vinagres (Antonio and 
Francisco), who declared themselves presidents. 

The anarchists began by assassinating the legal authorities, 
and finished by killing Malcher, the first chosen chief. 



12 The State of Para. 

Marshal Manoel Jorge, appointed by the government of 
Rio to take charge of the province, had the cowardice to 
allow himself to be deposed. Fire, robbery, and savagery 
invaded cities and villages, a few of which escaped, the most 
important of them being Cametd, which, under the adminis- 
tration of Father Prudencio, had made itself the centre of 
authority. 

It fell to the share of GENERAL ANDREA to take, on the 
13th of May, 1836, Belem from the anarchists, and to pacify 
the province. 

The press that had hitherto provoked animosity became 
the apostle of law and order, and to it we owe a great part 
of the progress of the province. 

Pard had then two daily newspapers ; at present it has 
over fifteen. 

Peace and prosperity commenced for the province, and its 
income steadily increased. 

In 1838 this income amounted to 231 contos of reis ; in 
1888 to 3,205 ; and at present it has reached over 7,000 
contos of reis. 

In these figures are included the state only, independent 
of the municipal and general income. 

Industrial and agricultural establishments rapidly in- 
creased. 

Some time after, all those establishments were abandoned 
and the people began almost exclusively to employ them- 
selves in gathering the natural products, such as rubber, 
cacao, tonka-beans, etc., which gave them better results. 

In proportion to the increase of commerce there was a 
decrease of national ships to transport the products of the 
Amazon; for this reason the government opened, in 1867, 
the Amazon River to ships of all nations. 

Then the exploration of the great river was opened to the 
world, and Pard advanced rapidly, while its income largely 
increased. 

In 1852 steam navigation had already commenced on the 
Amazon, and it has given results never before seen in other 
fluvial countries. J0A0 AUGUSTO Correa, a Para merchant, 



History of Para. 13 

obtained for the province traffic of the United States, and he 
was the first proponent of steam navigation for the Amazon. 

In 1865 Brazil declared war against the government of 
Paraguay. In Para were organized volunteer regiments of 
patriots, who marched to the defence of their country. To 
glorify these martyrs the province erected a statue, in Palace 
Square, to the brave General Gurjao, who fell mortally 
wounded in the battle of Itoror6. Owing to the pacific 
character of the Paraenses, the province now entered into a 
long period of peace and prosperity. Men like Angelo 
Custodio, JeronymoCoelho, the Marquis of Santa Cruz, and 
Viscount of Souza Franco came. To this period we owe 
many institutions and public buildings, viz. : the Jury, the 
Supreme Court, Lyceum, Amparo College, Normal School, 
Boys' Institute, Theatre of Peace, — the finest in Brazil, the 
Museum, the Municipal Palace. During this time many 
streets were opened and some of them paved with, parallelo- 
pipedons of granite. 

In the midst of so much development, public spirit ever 
strove towards higher ideals. 

The abolition of slavery was urged in clubs, and by the 
press ; kermesses were held, and abnegations practised ; and 
Pard had the glory of marking the 13th of May, 1888 (the 
anniversary of the return of Legality, in 1836), for the com- 
plete abolition of slavery in the country. 

Even at that time the idea of republicanism commenced 
to spread. 

Some of the young men, who appeared to have lost all 
faith in men and militant parties, commenced ostensively to 
organize conferences and meetings, publishing a daily news- 
paper called The Republic. 

Other papers accepted with sympathy the propaganda, 
which went so far as to penetrate the abodes of old politicians. 

In vain Count d'Eu, in a voyage up the Amazon in the 
beginning of 1889, searched for adherents to the throne; 
republican ideas were arousing public spirit to greater in- 
telligence and activity. 

On the 15th of November, 1889, the Republic was formally 



14 The State of Para. 

proclaimed in Rio de Janeiro, and the proclamation was ac- 
cepted in Para. 

A governmental Junta was proclaimed, and Para declared 
a federal state. This governmental Junta was composed 
of Dr. Justo Chermont, Col. Bento Fernandes, and Com- 
mander Nascimento. 

Dr. Chermont was appointed governor in December, 1889, 
and held his position until January, 1891, when he was called 
to Rio to enter the cabinet as Minister of Foreign Affairs. 

Huet Bacellar took charge of the government of the 
State in March, 1891, until the definitive constitution of the 
state. 

After its promulgation on the 23d of June, 1892, Dr. 
Lauro Sodre" was the following day elected by the legislative 
power as the first governor, and to the present day is still 
at the head of government. 

Since the proclamation of the Republic, the administra- 
tion of the state has largely developed public instruction ; 
the Normal School was, under the best methods, reformed, 
and its magnificent building is now finished ; in the Lyceum 
of Para is adopted a superior course of letters and sciences, 
and of surveying, and a school of agriculture, with practical 
teachings in all sciences therein applied, is to be organized. 
The primary schools have multiplied and improved. 

The state of Para" expends upon public instruction alone 
over a thousand contos of reis annually. 

The municipality of Para opened the Municipal Park, 
paved avenues in the squares, and is in the process of erect- 
ing a monument to the Republic, the plans of which were 
sought for in various countries, and the monument finally 
contracted by an Italian artist. 

Separation of State and Church has been effected, civil 
marriage established, and the adoption of Brazilian citizen- 
ship facilitated. 

Custom-house and revenue taxes, to a certain extent, be- 
long at present to the state. 

Colonization has commenced in Pard ; Dr. Lauro Sodre* 
is the president of a committee for propagating immigration, 



History of Para, 1 5 

the object of which is to attract agricultural laborers to this 
most fertile region. There are already several centres on 
the margin of the Braganza railroad to the place called 
CastanhaL The colonists receive lands and a small salary 
on advantageous contracts. 

Public administration, in all that concerns the state, is 
independent of Rio ; one can even say that in Brazil there is 
greater autonomy than in the United States of America. 

Para has reached a great height in its commerce, its po- 
litical life, and the finances of the Republic. 

The present Minister of Finance is Mr. SERZEDELLO 
Correa, a Para man, to whom she owes the greater part of 
her initiative movements. 

Through freedom of worship and the enlightening in- 
fluences of new institutions Para will rapidly advance, ful- 
filling the advantageous position granted her by nature on 
the map of the Union ! 



PART II. 

PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION. 



CHOROGRAPHY. 



SITUATION. 



The state of Para is the most northern of the United 
States of Brazil, and occupies a vast region of the Republic, 
comprised between the 4 22/ of north latitude, and 9 15' 
of south latitude, and 3 n' and 15 20' of longitude west 
of the meridian of Rio de Janeiro. 

BOUNDARIES. 

It is bounded on the north by the Atlantic Ocean, French, 
Dutch, and English Guianas ; on the east by the states of 
Maranham and Goyaz ; on the south by the state of Matto- 
Grosso, and on the west by that of Amazon. 

Its boundaries are : between the state and the Guianas, 
the Oyapoc River and the serras of Tumuc-Humac and 
Acarahy ; the rivers Gurupy and Araguaya, branch of the 
Tocantins, between this and the states of Maranham and 
Goyaz ; the Xingu River and its branches, the Fresco and 
Cariahy, separating it and the river S. Manoel, or of the 
Three Bars, a branch of the Tapajds River, from the state 
of Matto-Grosso ; and, finally, the straight line which, start- 
ing from the confluence of this river of the Three Bars, goes 
to the serra of Parintins, on the right bank of the Amazon 
River, determining with the Jamunda River, up to its 
source, the extreme of this state with that of Amazon. 

The accuracy of the limits of the state of Para is leagued 
to the boundary question between Brazil and French Gui- 
ana, the final solution of which, in compliance to Art. 2 of 
the convention of August 28, 1817, is still awaited to-day 
by the nation. 

19 



20 The State of Par d. 



SURFACE. 

Its territory is estimated at 1,149,712 square kilometres. 
In extent it is the third state of the Republic, and corre- 
sponds to \ of the Brazilian territory, and comprises y 1 ^- of 
the surface of South America. 

POPULATION. 

The census taken in 1872 is considered excessively 
deficient, rating, as it does, the population at 275,237 
inhabitants. 

Very variable has been the percentage of the increase of 
population in the different periods elapsed since that date, 
oscillating between the minimum of 2 per cent, and the 
maximum of 6 per cent. Adopting the mean of 4 per cent, 
for the annual increase of the population, we would have a 
total of 495,417 inhabitants. Undoubtedly it is greater, 
contributing towards this the Cearense immigration since 
1887. 

In a vast region like that of this state, capable of contain- 
ing more than half the population of Europe, and whose 
natural riches defy the force of the best united abilities, it 
is grievous to reflect on the numerical value of its population 
— 0.43 for each square kilometre ! 

More deserted than Iceland ! 

CLIMATE, TEMPERATURE, AND SALUBRITY. 

Popular prejudice has always been very great against the 
climate of this region, considered by many to be the focus 
of malarial fevers. 

Happily to-day this judgment is sufficiently modified; 
this modification is due, more than anything else, to the im- 
partial opinions of distinguished foreigners who have trav- 
ersed even its most inhospitable parts. 

In high lands it may be affirmed that the climate is tem- 
perate, and hot and damp in the low and marshy countries. 

The degree of regularity in the variation of temperature 
is such as to render admirable the perfection and symmetry 
of the respective diagram of registering instruments. The 



Physical Description. 2 1 

temperature varies within the narrow limits of 21 to 32 
Cent., a uniform mean to be noted in few other places. The 
trade-winds, which blow constantly from east and northeast, 
and the rains, which ordinarily fall in the afternoon, soften 
the climate, producing nights as mild as those of temperate 
regions. Herbert H. Smith, referring to the climate of Para 
in his work, The Amazon and the Coast, thus expresses 
himself : 

" Wet or dry season, the temperature is much the same 
all over the valley, and by no means a scorching equatorial 
heat, such as you may imagine. At Para, it is true, people 
complain of the sultry days, but you shall see a dozen more 
sultry ones during any August in New York ; 90 Fahren- 
heit is about the highest temperature of sunny afternoons, 
and the evenings are delightfully cool." 

Wallace, who like Smith, wandered four years over the 
Amazon valley, and who has thrown much light on the 
region in his important work, 1 gives his opinion in the 
following terms : 

" The climate of the Amazon valley is notable for the 
uniformity of its temperature, and for a regular supply of 
moisture. In many parts there are six months of the rainy 
and six months of the dry season, neither of which is so 
severe as in many other tropical regions. Withal, there are 
notable exceptions to the general rule in particular localities. 
Para itself is one of these exceptional places. Here the 
seasons are so modified that its climate is rendered one of 
the most agreeable on the face of the globe. Had I only 
judged the climate of Para from my first residence of a year, 
it might be thought I was impressed by the novelty of a 
tropical climate; but on my return from a three years' 
sojourn on the Upper Amazon and the river Negro, I was 
equally impressed with the marvellous freshness and brill- 
iancy of the atmosphere and the balmy softness of its even- 
ings, which certainly have no equal in any country I have 
visited. The greatest variation in one day is not, I think, 
much over 20 Fahrenheit ; and in four years the lowest and 
highest temperature give only the extreme variation of 25 °. 
Probably there does not exist in the world a more equable 
climate." 

1 Narrative of Travels on the Amazon and Rio Negro. 



22 The State of Pard. 

Such are the impartial opinions of illustrious travellers, 
which merit attention, corroborated, as they are, by Bates, 
who was over ten years on the Amazon, and who gives his 
opinion in the important work, The Naturalist on the River 
Amazon, in the following words : 

" Although lying [the city of Pard] so near the equator 
(i° 28' S. lat.), the climate is not excessively hot. The 
temperature during three years only once reached 95 of 
Fahrenheit. The greatest heat of the day, about 2 P.M., 
ranges generally between 89 and 94° ; on the other hand, 
the air is never cooler than 73 , so that a uniformly high 
temperature exists, and the mean of the year is 8i° Fahr. 
North Americans, residents, say that the heat is not so 
oppressive as it is in summer in New York and Philadel- 
phia. . . . We were agreeably surprised to find no 
danger from exposure to the night air or residence in the 
low swampy lands. A few English residents, who had been 
established here for twenty or thirty years, looked almost 
as fresh in color as if they had never left their native 
country. . . . The equable temperature, the perpetual 
verdure, the coolness of the dry season, when the sun's heat 
is tempered by the strong sea breezes, and the moderation 
of the periodical rains make the climate one of the most 
enjoyable on the face of the earth." 

Henry Morize, whose works on Brazilian climatology were 
examined by the distinguished director of Rio de Janeiro's 
observatory, L. Cruls, divides Brazil in three thermal zones : 
the tropical, the sub-tropical, and the temperate. 

The first zone, also called torrid or equatorial, comprises 
all that part of Brazil whose temperature exceeds 25 ° cent. 
The line which limits this zone — that is, the isothermal of 
25 °, passes the south of Pernambuco, perhaps by Alagoas or 
Sergipe ; cuts a part of Goyaz and of Matto-Grosso, passing 
below Cuyaba. Then the states of Pernambuco, Parahyba, 
Rio Grande do Norte, Ceara, Piauhy, Maranham, Para, and 
Amazon remain situated in this zone. (Quoted from Santa 
Anna Nery — Le Bre'sil en 1889.) 

For what reason should Para and Amazon be consid- 
ered hotter than all the states comprised in the tropical 



Physical Description. 



23 



zone ? Because they are found, it is affirmed, without the 
least examination, in the southern part of this zone, and 
consequently near the thermal equator. 

Withal, the thermal equator (90 Fahr.) passes north of 
Amazon by the Antilles, 15 or 16 in its greatest distance 
from the geographical equator. 

As Para is wholly in the tropical zone, it is unfavorably 
judged both by those who think that all intertropical regions 
are unhealthy, as also by those who, ignoring the modifying 
influence of its climate, unjustly attribute to it climatory 
conditions identical with those of countries subject to desolat- 
ing summers and droughts. 

To the close observer, however, the frequency of almost 
daily rains, the constancy of winds modifying the solar 
action, gigantic forests purifying with their effluvia the air 
which passes through them, and the infinity of rivers which 
cut the immense valley and fertilize the soil in a prodigious 
way — to this is strongly opposed the judgment formed of 
Amazonian climatology. 

Between the two seasons, — the rainy season and the dry 
or hot season — the difference is minimum and only accented 
by the greater or less frequency of rains. 

Professor M. F. Draenert, who noted for many years the 
distribution of rains in Brazil, calculated for different locali- 
ties the quantity of annual rain, and this is the result at 
which he arrived in the capital of Para : 



mm. 



January 
February 
March 
April . 
May 
June . 



165.4 July . 

269.9 August 

294.4 September 

307.3 October 

256.4 November 
133.9 December 



mm. 
82.9 
77.6 

52.3 
17.8 

72.2 
58.6 



The results observed in the Department of Public Works, 
Lands, and Colonization of Para the current year, beginning 
with May, relative to rain and evaporation were : 



24 The State of Par d. 

Rain. Evaporation. 

mm. mm. 

May . 153 91 

June . 249 84 

July 228 119 

August . . . . . .91 109 

September . . . . .186 106 

The opinion of Maury about the climate of the Amazonian 
region is well known : 

" In all the intertropical regions of the globe, in India, in 
Polynesia, in Western Africa, and in New Holland, two sea- 
sons reign. During the dry season little or no rain falls ; 
the fountains become exhausted, cattle perish, and their dead 
bodies contaminate the air ; then it happens that in those 
regions the terrible scourge of pestilence develops itself. 

" In the Amazon valley this never happens ; the rains, 
although copious, do not fall for the space of a few months, 
neither are they accompanied by those terrible hurricanes 
which appear in the change of season in India. In America 
mild and fertilizing rains fall during every month of the year 
and hurricanes are unfrequent. 

" Many suppose that because this region is within the 
tropics its climate is analogous to that of other tropical 
climates like India ; but for the reason already expounded, 
and the absence of monsoons, and other causes which might 
produce the drying up of the Amazon valley by the heat in 
one season, or its inundation by rains in another, there is as 
much resemblance between the climates of India and Ama- 
zonia, as between Rome and Boston. 

" Just as one would commit a grave error, who judged the 
climates of Boston and Rome identical because they are 
in the same latitude, so he would commit an equally grave 
error, who judged the climates of India and Amazonia 
identical, because they are both intertropical countries. 

" What should be the condition of that tropical country 
which has its soil watered by frequent rains, and upon which 
is inflicted no consuming droughts during centuries of per- 
petual summer ? In such a climate the phenomenon of an 
extraordinary fertility is given because all comes into life 
and develops so rapidly. 

"The rapid production and constant decomposition of 
vegetable matter during thousands of years ought neces- 



Physical Description. 25 

sarily to enrich the surface of the territory with sufficient 
layers of vegetable earth. Vegetation is in continual ac- 
tivity, without one interval of repose ; for, when one leaf 
falls and commences its decomposition, others spring forth 
which absorb all the gases. 

" Such are the conditions which make the Amazon climate 
one of the most delightful and healthy in the world." — The 
Amazon and the Atlantic Coast of South America. 

Malaria is another current report against the salubrity of 
this region, and one which has greatly contributed to im- 
pede its growing population ; withal this prejudice is almost 
as wholly without foundation as that in relation to the 
torrid climate. 

The distinguished Paraense, Mr. Jose Virissimo, has al- 
ready in a brilliant manner refuted this idea in articles upon 
A mazonia, published in the Journal of Brazil, in Rio de 
Janeiro. 

" Malaria," he says, " is the principal and most common 
chapter of accusation against the Amazon, and the region 
which it washes ; well, then, I shall certainly surprise the 
reader by affirming, without the least fear of contestation, 
that in all the properly so-called banks of the Amazon from 
the ocean to Manaos malarial fever is, if not unknown, 
scarcely so common as in better and better-reputed climates. 

" Fevers of this order reign on the sources of the rivers, 
its affluents and confluents, along the upper part of their 
course. 

" Those most attacked by malaria, like the Madeira and 
Tocantins, are free, in their middle and lesser course, from 
these pernicious fevers. 

" From many parts they have almost wholly disappeared. 

" For instance, Macapa, after having been one of the health- 
iest places in the state of Para, became, on account of the 
pools opened by excavations made for the construction of 
its celebrated fortress, and other incompleted works, which 
surround it, a hotbed of malaria. To day it is again a 
healthy place, cases of this type occurring more rarely each 
day. The same has taken place in the municipal district of 
Cameta, where malarial fevers have successively diminished, 
during the past years. 

" It still remains for us to say that Amazonian malarial 



26 The State of Para. 

fever very rarely assumes other form than that of intermit- 
tent fever or chills and ague ; pernicious or typhus fevers 
are very uncommon, and in many parts altogether unknown. 

" To be sure, malaria on the upper Madeira is terrible ; it 
acts upon the nervous centres, kills outright, or renders one 
useless for a long time ; enduring for many years and often 
resisting the most energetic and well-directed treatment. 
The same may be said of Jurua, of Moju, of Cairary, and 
other localities ; but there are exceptions. 

" If intermittent fevers are endemic in the region already 
described ; of the islands ; in the upper course of the To- 
cantins and Tapajos ; in the Xingii ; in part of the Trom- 
betas ; in the upper Madeira ; in the Jurua ; in the upper 
River Negro, and in some other rivers ; they rarely appear, 
and this with endemic mildness, in the magnificent western 
region where the climate is excellent, in Monte-Alegre, 
Obidos, Santarem, and Alemquer; in the districts of the 
Parintins, of Itacoatiara and even of Manaos. 

" In the principal rubber district, generally the most subject 
to malaria, in the river Purus, there are no fevers ; and the 
middle and the upper course of the Madeira, thanks to the 
progress of civilization there, to better habitations and more 
attention given to hygiene rules, is nearly free from them." 

This opinion is identical to that given by Herbert Smith, 
in the work to which we have already referred. 

" Now concerning the healthfulness of the river valley, 
that is a question with two sides. I can take you from Para 
to the Andes, along the main river, and you will never have 
so much as a headache ; you can ascend some of the tribu- 
taries and in a week you will be shivering with ague. In 
general it may be said that the Amazonian region is very 
healthy ; the exceptions are in low land, swamp forest, and 
far up the branch rivers among the rapids. 

" Certain rivers, too, are healthy during some years, but 
unhealthy at other times ; I have found this on the Tocan- 
tins, the Xingu, and other branches. Chandless writing from 
the Purus, in 1865, says: 'It is now very healthy, but 
some eight years ago fever was so prevalent and severe 
one season, that the following year four or five men only 
ventured up the river.' I wandered for four years along the 
Amazon, and never had the ague at all ; I caught it in 
three days on the Ohio." 



Physical Description. 27 

In the same way Creveaux, Charles Wiener, and other 
intrepid Amazonian travellers suffered neither from inter- 
mittent fevers nor from other supposed diseases of our 
climate. 

Orton affirmed that " without imported epidemics, Para 
would be the paradise of invalids." 

Instead of imputing to climatic influences certain ills, 
especially malarial fevers, one should with Agassiz attribute 
them to the habits of the resident population, i. e., " to the 
absolute want of hygiene, or rather to the systematic vio- 
lation of its rules.'' 

The foreigner then, who wishes to live among us will find 
a hospitable land and a benign climate, which will guarantee 
him health and strength, principally if the newly arrived will 
not neglect hygiene prescriptions, which it is in his interest 
and duty to follow. 

Only on immigration, only on population of this great 
region depends the development of those live forces which, 
in large copy, Nature offers to realize Humboldt's prophecy 
that here, " earlier or later, is to be concentrated the civiliza- 
tion of the globe." 

" This beautiful province of Para will certainly, one day, 
be the richest in South America," already exclaimed in 1847 
Francis de Castelnau. 

And not less enthusiastic is the following exclamation of 
Herbert Smith : 

" A city this is [Belem] with a manifest destiny : a city of 
the future, that shall yet enrich the world with its commerce. 
Some time, who knows, it may be the true metropolis of 
Brazil. I can suppose that. Rio de Janeiro is far removed 
from the commercial world, a good five thousand miles from 
New York and farther from Europe. Para is nearer by 
almost half that distance ; if it has not the harbor of Rio, it 
has what the southern city lacks, — splendid water communi- 
cation straight through the heart of its continent ; and this 
valley, if people did but know it, is the richest part of South 
America. 

" Para has her title of nobility ; by her situation she is the 
queen of the Amazons ! " 



28 The State of Par d. 

DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC WORKS, LANDS, AND COLONIZATION. 

Meteorological Recapitulation of the Months of May, June y 
July, August, and September, 1892. 



Months. 









a 




J, 


1 

as 


1 


.2 


■ 


etric Pre 

educed 

egrees). 




s . 


Hi 


B 
Q * 

CO 


S*3 


^ 






« 3 





5? 


s 

§ 




mm. 


• 







* 


757-5 


28.2 


22 


16.2 


57.7 


758.9 


30.3 


22.5 


16.8 


61.85 


760.03 


29.7 


22.1 


17.26 


60.57 


758.2 


31.5 


22.5 


17.52 


62.40 


758.9 


31.5 


22.5 


17.1 


61.3 



May 

June 

July 

August — 
September 



5-4 
9.8 

6.5 
6.9 

7.85 



NORTHERN BOUNDARY OF THE STATE. 
TERRITORY. 



CONTESTED 



It was still in the reign of Charles V. that the northern 
boundary of this state, or of Brazil, was determined by the 
landmark which, to divide the domain of Spain from Portu- 
gal, that sovereign ordered to be buried on the margin of 
the river named after Vincent Pinson. 

With the aim of fulfilling this contract and of defending 
the Portuguese lands, the crown ordered the verification of 
the landmarks, which were to be set to separate the domain 
of said lands from those belonging to the crown of France, 
and it was in this verification that Captain Joao Paes do 
Amaral, corporal of the coast-guard, and his soldiers 
found the primitive landmark, to which they have referred 
in their deposition, made before the General Auditor, as 
may be seen from the legal documents, registered in the 
public archives of this city of Belem, and from the tran- 
script of record and report below given, and which does not 
admit of any doubt regarding the boundaries of Brazilian 
lands : 





DA CIDi* 

intar pela Ver 
Pelo Engel 
MANOEL OC 

EscaL 

Lithsgb 



»&JL«TJl 



DA CIDADE DO PhRM, 

Mandada levantar pela Vereacao do Quatrienio da 1883-1886 
Pelo Engenlieiro da Camara 
MANOEL ODORICO NINA RIBEIRO 



Escala del: 24.000 




\ 



TERRENOS BAIXOS 



Palario- TImxij;,. Fumui. 
I, Junta Com menu! 
\Ceunara dos-Deputados 
3 Htcebetforia deRendas 
4- Mercado Publico 

5 AlfaruUga. 

6 CorreU 

7 Chsfla ih Seguranca 

8 Corpo de bijantsria 
1 {t."d*ArtiVi*ria 

JO Cadeia Publico, 

11 Gasometro 

J2 Theatre? 

J3 .Arsenal eUMarinha 



i5\ 



Collegia 



i do Carrno 

18 Bolsa 

19 Banco doPai*d 
„„ \Bunco Emissor 
~ { . deBeltm 

2 A Bunco da Bcpublioa 
\ .. London and Bra: 

22 Boriro Commcrvial 

23 Hospital 0rd*rn J." 
2* . SanmCas.i 

25 . D.Ln.zl" 

26 Quateldo 15? fnfanteria 
Z7 lurcjadaSc 



y 



Physical Description. 29 

" The year of Our Lord Jesus Christ one thousand seven 
hundred and twenty-three, the nineteenth day of the month 
of July of said year, in this city of Belem of Gram-Para, in 
the residence of Dr. Jose Borges Vallerino, chief Judge of 
His Majesty, whom God may keep, and General Auditor 
with power, and Judge of justifications in this captaincy and 
its annexes, there was an order given me by him, from the 
Governor and Captain-General of this State, Joao de Maya 
da Gama, in consequence of which witnesses were interro- 
gated for the contents of it, and whose answers were sum- 
marized and were joined to the same order. And all,' I, 
Recorder of the mandate of said Dr. General Auditor 
recorded and read what follows. I, Diogo Leitao de Almeida 
write this. 

" Having seen, in the orders of His Majesty, whom God 
preserve, concerning the lands of the Northern Cape, in 
which it was recommended to my predecessor to inform, if 
he knew, if the landmarks had been made, which were to 
separate the domains of said lands from those of the Crown 
of France, and if her subjects, against the treaty signed in 
Utrecht, had passed the said marks and entered on to our 
lands : — And having seen that upon this matter he answered 
with less consideration than was required on such an im- 
portant subject, by the instructions given into his own 
hand to guide his inquiries, to which I now fully and truth- 
fully answer, for the necessary report of which I expected 
by these ships, as the last solution, I deemed it convenient 
to execute it, in order to proceed to an exact verification of 
this matter, paying to it all my attention ; I could find 
neither old nOr young persons that had seen the marks 
referred to, nor knew if they had been set, nor where the 
River of Vincent Pinson, called in the French maps Oyapoc 
and by the natives ' Vaiapoco ' ; and wishing to certify 
such an important matter, I sent Captain Joao Paes do 
Amaral, corporal of great valor, prudence and zeal for the 
royal service, because I considered him the most capable in 
said enterprise, of giving an account of all that I committed 
to his care ; and having sailed with three canoes, equipped 
for war and manned with infantry, he turned the point of 
Macapa, which was called by the ignorant l Northern Cape.' 

"According to the instruction I gave him, he passed the 
true Northern Cape with the greatest labor and in evident 
danger of his life, being three or four times completely lost 
and submerged by the terrible waves of the bore (porordca), 
and the force of the currents which were met with through 



3<d The State of Para. 

all these banks and canals ; and, were it not for his courage 
and perseverance, the compliance which had been expected 
of him would not have been effected ; but having overcome 
all difficulties, he arrived at the river called ' Coanani/ sup- 
posing it to be the river of Vincent Pinson, from what he 
heard of one of the guides, that had intercourse with the 
natives, who gave him notice that in a smaller river, which 
flows behind, called * Vaiapoco,' there existed a good many 
Frenchmen ; and turning back to seek for them, he asked 
what they were doing, or what they had come after in the 
lands of His Majesty, whom God may keep, and of His 
dominions, to which they answered that ' they had come to 
buy parrots and animals, and that they had not come by the 
seas and coasts belonging to the Portuguese crown, but 
entered by the river of Vincent Pinson, called ' Yapoco/ 
and they had travelled by land, coming from one to another 
settlement, and passed by the Indians, their friends ' ; the 
said corporal then ordered them to leave those lands and to 
return to their own, or he would arrest them ; and, having 
gone, some of the Indians declared that 'they had been 
buying slaves and all they could find, favoring and protect- 
ing the Rebel Guyaman, chief of the Aruans, and that they 
instigated them to disobey His Majesty, whom God pre- 
serve, and to assault the settlement of ' Moribira,' close to 
this town ; and that said French hid said rebel ' ; and, 
indeed, following the instructions I gave him, running risks, 
working hard and living uncomfortably, he entered the true 
river of Vincent Pinson, and persistently searching, in its 
mouth, and in the river, on this side to discover said marks, 
he did not find them, nor high land, on which they might 
be found, and, seeing that on the other side some high land 
was seen, he did his best, with all care, to discover said 
marks, till he had the fortune to see the result of his work 
and diligence, ascending a hill almost perpendicular to its 
middle height, or with very little slope, and ascending by 
holding themselves with great difficulty on roots, they found 
from its middle upwards an easier ascension, and arriving 
on the top of said hill — ' they found a stone and natural rock, 
and on this cut an almost square of three hand-breadths, 
with its faces cut and a little more than one hand-breadth out 
of the ground ; and on it they found engraved some arms, 
which seemed to be on one side of Portugal, the five wounds 
or royal escutcheon, and on the other some castles with a 
lion, and around these stones there were some others raised 
as witnesses or guardians of same mark, and one of those 



Physical Description. 3 1 

that lie towards the escutcheon of Portugal, showed a cross, 
as a badge of Knighthood of Christ, which seem to signify 
infallibly that to be the mark of the division of the domain 
of Portugal and of Castella, whether it had been placed in 
the year ... by the Emperor Charles V., as History says, or 
in the year 1637 by Philip, when he gave the Captaincy to 
Bento Manuel Parente ; and it being necessary and conven- 
ient to the service of His Majesty and to the conservation 
of His dominions, and to avoid contests, which may come 
between the Crown of France and Portugal, to justify the 
referred ' — I order Dr. General Auditor to write the deposi- 
tion and the names of all witnesses who saw and met said 
Frenchmen, declaring the place where they met them, and 
what they heard from the Indians ; moreover, the entrance 
to the river of Vincent Pinson, the ascension of referred hill 
and the mark, and signs that were found on it, and the bank 
of the river, on which it lies ; from ' said mark, then, it can 
be proven that all the mouth of the river Vincent Pinson 
belongs to the Portuguese Crown and to the domains of His 
Majesty, whom God preserve ' ; and thus justified he shall 
give me three copies of the justification, this being well 
archived and registered in the Books of the Royal Estate 
and in the Senate of the Municipality, besides being regis- 
tered also in the books of the General Auditor, thus being 
indispensable to the royal service. Belem of Para, 12th of 
July, 1723." 

Portugal, strengthened by the conviction of her right, 
knew how to show herself inflexible in the defence of it, re- 
pelling the attempt made by France to transpose the boun- 
daries, either by means of military posts, or by missions 
established in Mayacare, Coanani, and Carapaporis ; in such 
a manner that the treaty of Utrecht could not but be con- 
sidered as final, until the 10th of August, 1797, when that 
Republic sought to confound the recognized limits, impos- 
ing upon Portugal the following stipulation : 

" The limits between the two Guianas, the French and 
Portuguese, shall be determined by the river called by the 
Portuguese — Calsoene, — and by the French — Vincent Pin- 
son, — which empties into the Ocean above the Northern Cape, 
in about two degrees and a half of Northern Latitude." 

And immediately after, there came the treaty of Badajds, 
celebrated June 6, 1801, with the mediation of Spain, to 



32 The State of Para. 

make the Portuguese frontiers draw back to the Araguary, 
and extending the French Guiana below the Northern Cape, 
in the following terms : 

" Art 4th. The limits between the two Guianas shall be 
determined, in future, by the river Arawary, which flows 
into the Ocean below the Northern Cape, near the islands 
Nova and Penitencia, at one and a half degree, more or less, 
of Northern Latitude. These limits shall follow said river 
Arawary from its mouth, the most distant of the Northern 
Cape, to its source, and then in a straight line taken from 
this source to the River Branco, to the West." 

With these limits, however, France having not yet taken 
possession of the margins of the Amazon River, another blow 
was to be struck for the complete demolition of the treaty 
of Utrecht. 

The 4th Article of the treaty, signed in Madrid on the 
29th of September, 1801, between Lucian Bonaparte and 
Cypriano Ribeiro Freire, completed, at last, the great at- 
tempt : 

" Art. 4th. The limits between the two Guianas, — the 
French and Portuguese, — shall be determined in future, by 
the river ' Carapanatuba/ which flows into the Amazon at 
about one third of a degree from the Equator, Northern 
Latitude, above the fort of Macapd. 

" These limits shall follow the course of the river up to its 
source, wherefrom they shall be extended to the great chain 
of mountains, which makes the division of the waters, fol- 
lowing the inflection of this chain to the point where it ap- 
proaches the River Branco, near the second degree and one 
third of the Equator." 

The war against France in 1808 offered Portugal the op- 
portunity for a revindication of all her rights. 

The taking of Cayenne, on the 14th of January, 1808, by 
the Corps of Volunteers of Para, under the command of 
Lieutenant-Colonel Manuel Marques, was the act by which 
were destroyed at once the stipulations which more and 
more forced back the Brazilian frontier. 

Nevertheless the treaty of peace, celebrated in Paris on 
the 30th of May, 18 14, re-establishes the confusion promoted 



Physical Description. 33 

by France, by accepting the stipulations existing previous 
to 1792. 

" Art. 10th. His Royal Highness, the Regent Prince of 
Portugal and Algarves, in consequence of the arrangements 
made with his allies, and for the execution of Article 8th, 
binds himself to deliver to His Most Christian Majesty, 
within the term further on stipulated, the French Guiana, 
exactly as it existed on January 1st, 1792. 

" The effects of this stipulation reviving contest existing 
at that time in regard to limits, it is agreed that this con- 
test shall be ended by friendly arrangement between the 
two Courts, under the mediation of Her Britannic Majesty." 

The Prince Regent of Portugal refuses to ratify this 
treaty, and England, his ally, proposes, January, 181 5, a little 
modification which Portugal still considers vexatious. The 
immediate delivery of Cayenne, exacted in this additional 
article, before the limits of Portuguese domains being fixed 
is haughtily refused ; and Portugal, that so many times had 
seen her domains restricted, exacts now a complete solution, 
capable of avoiding future ambiguous interpretations. 

Hence the convention celebrated May 11, 181 5, with 
France, and which served as a basis for the stipulation of 
the Vienna Congress, on the 9th of June of the same year: 

"Art. 1st of the Convention. His Royal Highness the 
Regent Prince of Portugal and Brazil, and His Majesty the 
King of France and Navarre, wishing to remove the diffi- 
culties which were opposed on the part of His Royal High- 
ness to the ratification of the Treaty signed May 30th, 18 14, 
between Portugal and France, declare null and void the 
stipulation contained in article the tenth of said Treaty, and 
all those that may refer to it, substituting for it, in accord- 
ance with the other signing powers, the stipulations ex- 
pressed in the following article of the present Treaty, which 
alone will be reputed valid. By means of this substitution 
the said high contracting parties bind themselves to consider 
as valid and mutually obligatory all the other stipulations of 
said Paris Treaty." 

" Art. 2d. His Royal Highness wishing in a most evident 
manner to signify his consideration towards His Majesty 
Louis XVIII., binds himself to deliver and declares that he 



34 The State of Para. 

delivers to said Majesty the French Guiana to the Oyapoc 
river, whose mouth is between the fourth and fifth degrees 
of North Latitude, the limit which Portugal always con- 
sidered to be that which had been determined by the Treaty 
of Utrecht. The time for the delivery of this Colony to His 
Most Christian Majesty will be determined, as soon as the 
circumstances allow it, by means of a private convention be- 
tween the two Courts. Amicable proceedings will take place 
— as soon as possible — as to the definite boundaries of the 
Portuguese and French Guianas, in conformity with what 
has been expressed in article 8th of the Treaty of Utrecht." 

" Art. CVII. of the Act of the Congress of Vienna. His 
Royal Highness the Regent Prince of Portugal and Brazil 
to manifest in an incontestable manner his particular con- 
sideration towards His Most Christian Majesty, binds him- 
self to deliver to said Majesty the French Guiana to the 
river Oyapoc, whose mouth is situated between the fourth 
and fifth degrees of North Latitude ; the limit which Portu- 
gal always considered as that which was fixed by the Treaty 
of Utrecht. 

" The time for the delivery of this Colony to His Most 
Christian Majesty shall be determined as soon as circum- 
stances will allow it, by means of a private convention be- 
tween the two Courts ; there will be amicable proceedings, in 
the shortest possible time, for the definite establishment of 
the boundaries of the Portuguese and French Guianas, in 
accordance with art. 8th of the Treaty of Utrecht." 

The delivery of the colony depending, as it had remained 
by this article, on the private convention between the two 
courts, Portugal did not wish to let go the possession which 
she held, before the former being effected, in spite of the 
insistence with which France claimed the delivery. The con- 
vention celebrated in Paris, on the 28th of August, 18 17, 
permitted France to take again possession of Cayenne : 

" Art. 1st. His Most Faithful Majesty, animated by the 
wish of giving execution to article one hundred and seventh 
of the Act of Congress of Vienna, binds himself to deliver 
to His Most Christian Majesty, within three months or be- 
fore, if possible, the French Guiana to the river Oyapoc, 
whose mouth is situated between the fourth and fifth degrees 
of North Latitude, to 322 degrees of East Longitude of the 
Ferro Island, by the parallel of 2° 24/ of North Latitude." 



Physical Description. 35 

"Art. 2d. Both parties will immediately appoint and 
send commissioners to determine definitely the boundaries 
of the Portuguese and French Guianas, in conformity with 
the exact sense of art. 8th of the Treaty of Utrecht, and 
the stipulations of the Act of the Congress of Vienna : said 
Commissioners are to finish their work within one year's 
time, at the latest, counting from the day of their meeting 
in Guiana. If at the end of this term of one year, the re- 
spective commissioners do not agree among themselves, the 
two High Contracting Parties will proceed amicably to 
another arrangement, with the mediation of Great Britain 
and always according to the exact sense of art. 8th of the 
Treaty of Utrecht, concluded under the guarantee of that 
Power." 

The postponement of the realization of the arrangement 
determined by this 2d Article, has been the cause of con- 
tests that have occasionally been raised about the lands 
situated between the Araguary River and Cape of Orange. 

Nevertheless, France herself has several times officially 
recognized the right that Brazil has upon that vast territory. 

The notes of her Ministers of Foreign affairs to her Minis- 
ter to the Court of Brazil, on the 5th of July, 1841, relative 
to the post of Mapa, established since 1835, and to the Bra- 
zilian Minister in Paris, in August, 1850, upon the attempt 
to establish a new post in the same situation, made in 
December, 1849, clearly attest that the French government, 
although they wish to consider contestable the territory 
of the Northern Cape, cannot but recognize the stipula- 
tions in force, which grant the rights of Brazil, as Antonio 
N. Monteiro Baena has abundantly proven in 1846; Joa- 
quim Caetano da Silva, in 1854; the Baron of Marajo, in 
1 861, and Cons. Tito Franco de Almeida, in 1884, and 
many others who have studied this question. 

TOPOGRAPHY. CHARACTERISTICS OF THE REGION. 

In general, the soil is level with a slight elevation in the 
interior of the continent. 

To better estimate the configuration of this region, we will 
transcribe the words of the great scientists Agassiz and 



36 The State of Par d. 

Hartt, who carefully studied the great Amazon valley of 
which this forms a part. 

" The Amazon valley," says Agassiz, " is not a valley in the 
ordinary sense of the word ; it is not found boxed up be- 
tween high walls shutting up the waters which pour out ; 
on the contrary, it is a vast plain, of about 1,200 Kilometres 
in width, over 4,000 in length, with so slight a decline 
that the mean does not exceed 19 centimetres by the myri- 
ameter. Between Obidos and the sea-coast the distance is 
nearly 1,300 Kilometres, and the fall is not more than 13 
metres and 70 centimetres. 

" From Tabatinga to the Ocean there are, in a straight line, 
more than 3,200 Kilometres, and the difference of level 
is about 60 metres. The impression, at simple sight, is, 
then, that of a perfect plain, and the flowing of water is so 
slight, that it is scarcely perceptible in many points of the 
river. Nevertheless this last makes a slow, but incessant 
march towards the East, and slides over the immense 
plain, inclined gently from the Andes to the sea, helped 
on by the intermittent flowing of tributaries from the 
two margins, which impels the mass of water towards the 
north during the months of our winter, and forces it to 
the south in the epoch of our summer. The effect of these 
alternates is that the bottom of the valley is constantly 
dislocating itself ; thence the tendency towards the forma- 
tion of canals, which come from the great bed in its tribu- 
taries, like those which exist between Solimoes and the River 
Negro, and, as Humboldt mentions, between the Hyapurd, 
and the Amazon. In reality all these rivers are joined 
among themselves by a network of canals, forming a laby- 
rinth of ways of communication which, in great part, will 
always render inutile land communication. 

" The valley of the Amazons was first sketched out by the 
elevation of two tracts of land, namely, the plateau of 
Guiana on the north, and the central plateau of Brazil on 
the south. It is probable that, at the time these two table- 
lands were lifted above the sea-level, the Andes did not 
exist . . . 

" ... At the beginning a plutonic uprising, tearing up 
the surface, produced the great elevated plain of Bolivia, 
whose characteristics Humboldt was the first to perfectly 
recognize ; then the elevated plain of the Brazilian territory 
was formed, and this like that is inclined in an inverse sense, 
one to the northern side, the other to the southern. The 



Physical Description. 37 

first limit of the future basin was thus found traced ; but the 
proper basin yet did not exist. What resulted from this 
great cut was a strait which occupied the void or vacuum 
existing between the two fragments. 

" A strait, then, placed in communication the two oceans. 
One day the Andes appeared, which, extending from the 
North to the South, formed a gigantic dyke, whose declivities 
inclined towards the East, and the valley was traced, if not 
circumscribed, within its actual bounds. 

" In every sense, we see the effects of the formation of the 
river, and the placing of its basin with a triple inclination, 
from which results the direction and the course of its 
branches. 

" From this also resulted the difference which is noted 
between the Amazon and other great rivers. The principal 
bed has not a clearly circumscribed basin. It is not one 
canal alone, but a network of canals so much the more 
complicated as the affluents carry more water. The an- 
astomoses between the different currents of water are 
extremely frequent. Thus the Madeira extends in an 
Easterly direction an arm which, after it has received 
several smaller branches, only joins the principal artery in 
Villa Bella. This principal artery also, on its side, can 
scarcely be distinguished, and it is not known whether these 
many anastomoses are or not old beds abandoned by the 
Amazon itself. And these anastomoses do not exist alone 
in the proximities of the confluents ; the Solimoes joins 
itself to the Madeira and to the Amazon ; further on the 
Japurd divides itself into branches which extend to the River 
Negro. Thus the Amazon empties waters into its tribu- 
taries before it has received their own. This complicated 
network is found sketched, cut in the old layers previously 
marked out."* 

Prof. Hartt holds the same opinion as does Agassiz : 

" The Amazon valley," he says, "in the beginning appeared 
like a broad canal, between two islands or groups of islands, 
of which one constituted the base and the nucleus of the 
Brazilian plateau, and the other to the north, that of Guiana. 

"These islands appeared in the beginning of the Silurian 
age, or perhaps a little after it. In that epoch, the Andes 
did not exist. 

" Before the apparition of the Andes, the Amazon valley 
consisted simply of two gulfs united by one canal. The 

* Translated from the Portugese. 



38 The State of Par d, 

Andes burst out at the entrance of the gulf to the West, 
converting it into one real basin, though with outlets to the 
North and to the South. All the continent afterwards was 
depressed in such a manner, that the waters amply covered 
the plateaux of Guiana and Brazil, and the tertiary layers 
were there deposited, varying in thickness and constructure, 
according to the conditions in which they were formed. 

" It is to be supposed that these layers adapted themselves 
in level with the bottom over which they have been deposi- 
ted, remaining higher in the lower margins of the basin, and 
immerging from the margins to the centre. When the con- 
tinent surged again over the water, the levelled plateaux 
were first upraised by their new acquisition of deposits; 
however, afterwards, the actual dividers of the waters, unit- 
ing the great plateaux with the Andes, came over the water, 
and the Amazon valley became a Mediterranean, communi- 
cating Eastward with the Atlantic by a narrow canal." * 

" This exposition, says the celebrated naturalist, Orville 
Derby, clearly explains the formation of the low lands of the 
low plains of Para, and the high plains in the interior of the 
province. It remains to say that the undulated grounds are 
due to the appearance, in virtue of the denudation, of the 
tertiary layers, the inclined layers of formations older 
than the tertiary, including the cretaceous, the palaeozoic 
and the archean. 

" The rocks of the ancient islands, first lands emerged from 
the Ocean which occupied the area in which the continent 
was formed, have undergone a profound metamorphosis, 
becoming converted into granite, gneiss, quartz and meta- 
morphic schist. For this we can easily determine approxi- 
mately the extension of those islands, studying the 
distribution of metamorphic rocks." * 

Truly this theory cannot fail to be accepted by those who 
have closely observed the free course of the great river and 
the depth of its bed, in relation to the Tapaj6s, the Xingu, 
the Tocantins, and other rivers, generally obstructed by 
waterfalls, and of little depth in many sections during certain 
seasons of the year. And to leave no doubt on the subject, 
there is the great island of Maraj6 and other circumjacent 
islands, occupying the enormous entrance invaded by the 
ocean, to-day repelled by the powerful current of the 

* Translated from the Portuguese. 



Physical Description. 39 

Amazonian waters. Appreciating fully the geological con- 
dition of the great valley's formation, Agassiz adds : 

" Nothing, or almost nothing, is known of the oldest 
stratified deposits which repose over crystalline masses, 
which first arose along the borders of the valley. There is 
not here, as in North America, a succession of azoic, silurian, 
devonian, and carbonaceous formations, emerging one after 
the other through the gradual uprising of the continent. 
There and here, withal, beyond doubt, the oldest lands of 
the palaeozoic age and the secondary age form the base of 
the posterior formations. 

" The first chapter of the history of the valley over which 
we possess authentic data connecting one with the other is 
of the cretaceous period. It seems certain that in the end 
of the secondary age the entire Amazon basin was covered 
with a cretaceous deposit, whose marginal part is shown in 
various localities in the borders of the valley. This deposit 
was observed following the meridional limits of the basin in 
its Western confines along the Andes, in Venezuela along 
oast chain, and also in some localities near their limits 
on the Eastern side. 

The complex of these (Amazonian) deposits are found 
auuvo the level of the sea although in a slightly elevated plain. 
The lowest layers are visible in all places from Huallaga to 
Maraj6. They were formed, with a slight declivity, in a West- 
erly to an Easterly direction. In every part they present a 
triple character. At the bottom they are marls, clays, so 
finely triturated that it is almost impossible to distinguish 
the grains. They form absolutely a uniform and homo- 
geneous mass. Afterwards appears a mixture of clay and 
sand, and finally a sand each time coarser and coarser. 

"Thus: 1st. A coarse sand mixed with boulders. 2d. 
A fine sand deposited in thin, regular layers. 3d. Banks 
or meadows of clay, in layers so fine that sometimes they 
approach the thinness of a sheet of paper. This is in the or- 
der of superposition, the first system observed in every part. 

" The layer which terminates the deposit and forms its 
surface, is a species of varnish of a uniformly smooth crust, 
without erosion, which shows that the clays were not de- 
nuded before the formation of this same layer. Above this 
first system appeared another deposit of sandstone, com- 
posed of gravel, grains of different rocks, coarse sandstone, 
indeed, a product of various materials, but precipitated also 



40 



The State of Para. 



in parallel layers, and without discordance of stratification — 
that is, precipitated in the same basin of smooth waters, 
where the deposit of the first system was formed. 

" In this second order of layers are two things to be 
noted: 1st. The diversity in the nature of the sandstone, a 
mixture of coarse sand, of silica, of limestone, of oxide of 
iron, and a sandstone sometimes extremely hard, and in 
places so full of iron that it resembles this metal when 
coming from the mine, always very coarse sandstone ; and, 
2d, that sometimes is discovered the vestige of a violent 
reaction of the waters. This system, the most considerable, 
is sometimes eighty, a hundred, and even a thousand feet in 
thickness, and everywhere presents the same parallelism. 

" The third deposit, placed over the first two, is the result 
of the conglomeration of the very fine sandy clays, similar 
to those found in the vicinity of Rio de Janeiro, and that 
scarcely present vestiges of stratification. The layers of this 
deposit are indistinct and all appear homogeneous." * 

To complete the study of the formation of the Amazonian 
region it simply rests with us to make known the paleon- 
tological elements which may serve to guide the scientific 
observer as to the epoch of the same formation, and eluci- 
date him in the discovery of the prodigious mineral wealth 
which the majestic valley conceals, awaiting only the great 
force of industry and the vigorous arm of man to seize it 
from its bosom. 

Fossils of the Devonian lands of Erer^ prepared and de- 



scribed by Hartt and Rathbun : 




Terebratula Derbyana 


Hartt 


Spirifera Pedroana . 


it 


Elizse .... 


it 


" Valentiana . 


a 


Cyrtina Curupira 


Rathbun 


Retzia Jamesiana 


Hartt 


" Wardiana 


it 


Rhynchonella (Stenocisma) Dotis 


'. Hall 


Orthis Nettoana 


Rathbun 


Streptorhynchus Agassizii . 


Hartt 


Chonetes Comstockii . 


a 


Herbert Smithii . 


u 


Onettiana . 


Rathbun 



* Translated from the Portuguese. 



Physical Description. 



4i 



Conrad 
Hall 

a 


it 

Rathbun 


it 

Hartt and Rathbun 

it tt 


u it 


tt u 


Hall 
Hartt and Rathbun 

it tt 


it tt 


Hall 
Hartt and Rathbun 

Hall 
Hartt and Rathbun 



Tropidoleptus corinatus 
Vitulina pustulosa 
Dilcina sodensis 
Lingula spatulata 
" Gracana 
" Stantoniana 
" Rodriguezii 
Dalmania Paytuna 
Homalonotus Oiara 
Pleurotomdria Rochana 
Holopea Furmaniana . 
Platycera symmetricum 
Bellerophon Morganianus 
" Coutinhoanus 

" Gilletianus 

Nuculites Nyssa . 

" Ererensis . 

Grammysia parallela . 
Edmondia Pondiana . 

" Sylvana 

Mordiomorpha Pimentana 
Palaeoneilo sulcata 
" simplex 

Tentaculites Eldredgianus 

Fossils of the Carboniferous lands of the Coal Measures of 
the TapajdSy described by Derby : 

Terebratula Itaitubensis 
Waldheimia Coutinhoana 
Eumetria punctulifera 
Athyris subtilita 

" sublamellosa 
Spirifera camerata . 

" opima 

" (Martinia) perplexa . 

" " planoconvexa 

Spiriferina transversa 
" spinosa . 

Rhynchonella Pipira 
Orthis Penniana 

" Morganiana . 
Streptorhynchus Correanus 
" Hallianus 

" tapajotensis 

Chonetes Amazonica 



Derby 

Shumard 

Hall 

a 

Morton 

Walle 

McChesney 

Shumard 

McChesney 

Norwood and Pratten 

Derby 



4 2 



The State of Para. 



Strophalosia Cornelliana . . . Derby 

Productus semireticulatus . . Martin 

Cora .... Orbigny 

Chandlessii . . . Derby 

Batesianus 

Rhomianus 

Wallacianus 

Clarkianus 

OROGRAPHY. 

A simple investigation of the formation of the Amazon 
basin shows that in the northern boundary, corresponding to 
the Guianas plateau, and in the meridional given by the 
central plateau of Brazil, ought to preponderate the great 
undulations of the soil of the state. 

In reality, it is in that plateau that the great chain of the 
system Parima is found, formed by the serra of Tumuc- 
Humac, which separates the Brazilian Guiana from the 
French and the Dutch, and by the Acarahy between the 
English and the same Guiana, and in the last is found the 
serra of Gradahus. 

Nevertheless, the tellurian convulsions must not have con- 
centrated in these extreme points ; in the same way as they 
went on cutting the furrows, which would form later on the 
beds of great rivers, that ramifying themselves would mar- 
vellously cut out the region, they also produced other sec- 
ondary elevations scattered about here and there, and 
always in a descending scale from gradation in altitude. 
And thus can also be pointed out the serras of Paru, of 
Almeirim, and of Velha Pobre in the municipality of Almei- 
rim ; that of Jutahy and Parauaquara in the Prainha ; that of 
Tauajury, Erer£, and Pay tuna in Monte- Alegre ; that of 
Escama, Curumu, Sapucua, and Valha-me Deus in Obidos ; 
that of Parintins in Juruty ; besides others of less importance, 
many of them simple hills and mountains, which are : those 
of the Mongubas, Curumiry, and Laranjal in Macapa ; that 
of the Dedal in Faro ; those of the Piraquara, Aracury, and 
Axicara in Villa Franca ; the serra Piroca and that of Curua 
in Santarem, that of the Trocara in the Tocantins, and that 
of the Pria in Vizeu. 



Physical Description. 43 

HYDROGRAPHY. 

If the prosperity of any country depends, as is to-day fully 
recognized, upon the greatest development of the ways of 
communication which cross it, then all will be surprised at 
the grand destiny for which this state, by its hydrographical 
system, was cut out. 

Rivers. 

Numberless are the rivers which cross the territory in 
majestic intricacy ; incalculable the igarapes (small rivers) 
which from every part draw out the prodigious mass of 
water, which in the millionth part of a second is emptied 
into the ocean ; of an almost sublime grandeur are the 
creeks and channels, which link among themselves these 
same rivers and these same igarapes ! 

Mentioning the principal among them, first in order stands 
The Amazon River. — It is the largest river in the world. 
The opinion most widely adopted as to its origin is that it 
rises in the lagoon of Lauricocha, in the district of Huanaco, 
in the department of Tarma, in io° 3c/ of S. lat., and 32 
leagues N. N. E. from Lima. 

After Christopher d* Acuna, who proved the impossibility 
of Humboldt's supposition in attributing the formation of 
the Amazon to the reunion of the two small rivers Agua- 
miros and Chavanillos, giving this as coming from Lake 
Lauricocha, this has been the origin generally adopted by 
geographers. It is described with such an origin by Ber- 
nardo Berredo, Martinho de Albuquerque, Ayres do Cazal, 
Olbigny, Francis de Castelnau, James Orton, Levasseur, H. 
Smith, Costa Azevedo, Maltebrun, and many others. 

The illustrious traveller Consul Weiner gives the account 
of its source in the following terms : 

" In 1876, I saw Lake Lauricocha, in the heights of Hu- 
anaco-Viejo, birth-place of the King of Rivers. There, under 
the inclement sky of Puna, trickles from a cold lagoon a tiny 
streamlet ci water, which, in a winding direction, crosses the 



44 The State of Pard. 

high plain of sickly and withered shrubs. More to the 
North this streamlet, already a torrent, is known by the 
name of Tunguragua, fertilizing the smiling valley of Huan- 
tar. And now I saw it in Pongo in the last degree of 
that gigantic, hydraulic staircase, which descends from the 
inhospitable heights of 5,500 metres to these plains, exuberant 
in vegetable riches . . . 

Others, however, attribute to the Nupe the origin of the 
great river, resulting from the studies and explorations of 
the naturalist Antonio Raimondi, who endeavored to 
" rectify the great mistake, into which he himself had fallen 
years before, guided by alien writings." 

On this subject says H. Benites in his Geography ofPerti : 

" The origin of the Amazon is not the river that flows 
from lagoon of Lauricocha, but the Nupe which comes from 
farther away, and has its commencement in the Cordilheiras 
of Huayhuash. In the province of Huamalies, the Quero- 
palca and the Choula join it. Observing its course and its 
reunion with the river which flows from the lagoon, concludes 
Raimondi, the first is mightier than the second ; then it is the 
Nupe, and not this, that is the source of the Amazon." 

Under the name of Marafion it is known in the Peruvian 
provinces of Huamalies, Huari, Conchucos, Huamachuco, 
Pataz, and Cajamarca, and the Indians call it Tunguragua. 
From the Peruvian frontier to the mouth of the river Negro 
it takes the name of Solimoes ; thence until it reaches the 
ocean it is called the Amazon. 

Parana Grande, Gram-Para, and Orellana are so many 
other names which have been given to the " sea-river," 
which by many is also called the " Mediterranean " of fresh 
waters. It has a course of 7,000 kilometres, of which 4,000 
(more than the Volga) pertain to the Brazilian territory ; 
it crosses the state of Amazonas, entering the Para at 13 
Ii' of W. long, from Rio de Janeiro, then empties into the 
Atlantic Ocean below the equator, forming between the 
Northern Cape and Maguary Point an entrance 158 miles 
in width. 



Physical Description. 45 

It is the greatest hydrographic basin on the globe, having 
5,400,000 square kilometres. Its smallest width, in Obidos, 
measures 1,892 metres, with the mean depth of 75 metres. 

Martius calculated the current of the water here at 499,- 
584 cubic feet per second. 

The Amazon empties into the ocean 250 millions of cubic 
metres hourly ; the velocity of its current near the mouth 
measuring three miles per hour ; but the influence of ebb 
and flow is felt at 900 kilometres from the ocean. 

It is subject, like the Nile, to a periodical overflow and 
fall, this beginning in the end of June, and the overflow in 
the months of December and January. 

It receives in its course the waters of one hundred other 
rivers, of which the principal in Amazon state are : the 
Javary, Jutahy, Jurua, Teffe, Coary, Purus, and Madeira on 
the right side, and Napo, led, Japura, and river Negro on 
the left ; and in the territory of Para the Trombetas, Paru, 
Jary, Anauerapucu, and others to the left margin, and the 
Tapajds, Curua, and Xingu to the right ; some wishing yet 
to consider as its tributaries the rivers Pard and Tocantins, 
and all rivers of the same zone. 

The Trombetas. — It rises in the cordilheiras of Guianas, 
in the serra Acarahy, from the confluence of the rivers Capu 
and Mahu, also called Apiniau. 

It is navigable to the extent of 135 miles, its principal 
rapid being at i° 6' 2" S. lat. and 14 15' i" W. long, from 
Rio de Janeiro. 

It receives several affluents, the Jamunda or Nhamundd 
being the principal one, of which we will occupy ourselves 
later on, and which serves as a boundary between the state 
and Amazon ; the Cuminan which comes from the campos of 
Brazilian Guiana, many times dashing down over the highest 
cataracts which are found in rivers of this region. 

The river Cuminan was first explored to its sources by 
Father Nicolino, and lately by the engineer Tocantins, both 
equally surprised at the splendid zone it crossed. 

The PARti. — It flows into the Amazon near Almeirim, 
having its source in the serras of Paru, and a course of 550 



46 The State of Para. 

kilometres, with 400 to 600 metres in width. The navigable 
part of this river measures scarcely 160 kilometres, and Dr. 
Creveaux, who explored it, judges it navigable to a still 
lesser extent. The illustrious explorer, Domingos Soares 
Ferreira Penna, writing to H. Smith over the Paru, thus 
discourses : 

" I know it as far as the lowest rapid, to which point I 
ascended in a steamboat. From this point to the mouth the 
river runs about seventy miles through a valley which varies 
gradually in width ; sometimes the hills and little serras almost 
reach the bank; again, and especially in the lower course, 
there are low plains. In this lower portion the river divides 
into two unequal channels, which unite again twenty miles 
below; 10 or 12 miles below this junction the river passes 
close to the serra d'Almeirim and flows out into Amazon by 
the Parana-miry d'Almeirim. The general course is the east- 
southeast, varying a little to the southeast. 

" The river is navigable for small steamboats ; channel 
crooked, and about as wide as the Maycuru at Monte-Alegre 
(300 yards). Report says that there are many rapids in the 
upper course ; all, except one, passable for small canoes ; 
between them there are many hours of unobstructed naviga- 
tion." 

The Jary. — It rises in the serra of Tumuc-Humac of 
Guiana, running in the lower part parallel to the Paru ; withal 
it has a much greater extension than this, and crosses a much 
richer region. This river was also explored by Creveaux, 
who found its course obstructed by frequent rapids, among 
the most notable of which are: Pancada, Escada, Grade, 
and Desespero, the first rapid being 120 miles from the 
mouth. Ferreira Penna, describing it, says : " This fall is 
a perpendicular leap, a sheet of water flowing over a wall, 12 
or 14 metres high ; at the left, a spout or jet empties into 
the same basin. Still farther, to the left, there is a little 
cascade." 

ANAUERAPUCti.— Also called the river of Villa Nova ; it 
rises in the highlands of Brazilian Guiana, and after a per- 
course quite extensive, generally in the sense of E. S. E. 
varying to S. E. across lands proper for cattle raising, it 



Physical Description. 



47 



empties its waters into the Amazon, by two mouths, one 15 
the other 20 miles above Macapa. 

The Tapajos is formed by a reunion of the rivers Arinos 
and Juruena, both more than 600 kilometres in extent. The 
first rises in the campos Parecis 14 42' 30" S. lat. and 63 
3' long. W. of Paris, and the second in the estate, Estivada 
da Serra Azul. 

Both part from the " divortium aquarium " in the state 
of Matto-Grosso, following directions opposite to the Para- 
guay River, at half a league's distance, so that on the occa- 
sion of the great overflowings, the waters of these rivers 
communicate, giving passage to small embarkations. 

The Tapaj6s has 1,300 kilometres of extension (equal to 
the Rhine or Dwina northerly), the principal branches being 
the Arapiuns, Mapiry, Cury, Bom Jardim, Cupary, Crepory, 
Tropas, that of Aguas Boas, S. Manoel, or the Trez Barras, 
which serve as the boundaries of the state. 

Its course, withal, is obstructed by 28 rapids, the princi- 
pal of which are : Maranhaozinho, Great Maranhao, Furnas, 
Bacabas, Coata, and Apuhy in the state of Para, and Salto 
Augusto, which dashes down a height of 20 metres ; Tocariral, 
Salsal, Rebojo, S. Lucas, Dobragao, Labyrintho, Banquinho, 
Canal do Inferno, and Todos os Santos in Matto-Grosso. 

At 23 kilometres above Itaituba the Tapaj6s takes a con- 
siderable width, which varies between 16 and 20 kilometres, 
until near Santarem, where the river presents scarcely a width 
of 2,500 metres, more or less. 

Chandless, in his Notes on the Rivers Arinos, Juruena, and 
Tapajos, gives the following intermediate distances, in Eng- 
lish miles, for the different points of the Tapaj6s : starting 
from Porto Velho to 

80 miles 



" " River Tapanhonas 


120 ' 


Height of the Arinos Waterfalls 


100 ' 


Mouth of the Arinos .... 


120 ' 


Salto Augusto 


140 ' 


Mouth of the River S. Thome . 


65 < 


" " " " S. Manoel. 


80 ' 



100 
120 

25 
I/O 



4 8 The State of Para. 

ist Settlement of the Mondurucus. 8o miles 

Mouth of the River Crepori 
Apuhy Waterfall 

Itaituba 

Santarem 

In the summer the tides extend to Itaituba, and Bates ob- 
served them in an arm of the Cupary, much above the mouth. 

Over the affluent Arapiuns or Arapichuna was also made 
by the official Fleuriot de Langle an excellent map. 

The Mundurucus Indians, who populate its banks, are very 
pacific and industrious. 

On the right side of the mouth of the river Tapajds is 
situated the town of Santarem, and along the river are the 
villages of Aveiros and Itaituba, and the settlements of Villa 
Franca, Bom-Gosto, Alter do Chao, Boim, Pinhel, Santa 
Cruz, Uxituba, Cury, and Brazilia Legal. 

CURUA DO Sul, or Curua de Santarem, is the river called 
which washes the eastern part of the municipality of San- 
tarem and empties into the right side of the Amazon, to be 
distinguished from the Curua Panema, or Curua d'Alemquer 
in the municipality of this name. 

It is formed by two principal branches : the Curua and the 
Una. 

The first, more extensive, runs in the midst of the plains 
in a northwesterly course, and is a confluent of the Una, 
which runs between serras, accompanying to a little distance 
the Tapajds, and interrupted by various waterfalls. In 
Pacoval Point, 15 miles close to the Amazon, the Curud 
divides itself into two branches : receiving at the right the 
Tamucury and the Igarape" Grande, and emptying into the 
Amazon with the name of Cucary, already in the territory 
of Monte-Alegre ; and the left branch runs in a general 
course to the north, and goes to the Amazon in front of the 
island of Barreiras. 

Between this river and the Tapajds are found the bores of 
Ituki, and Mahica simply two defluents of the Amazon, 
which run through the meadows of this right margin and 
terminate in one sole mouth. 



Physical Description, 49 

THE XiNGU. — It is one of the most fertile rivers in the 
great Amazon basin, as well as one which guards most 
closely its enormous wealth. Explored in 1843 by Prince 
Adalbert of Prussia, accompanied by Counts Oriolla and 
Bismark, to the extent of 421 kilometres, it was last studied 
by Dr. von den Steinen, William von den Steinen, and 
Orthon Clauss, and the elucidations by them thrown over 
that region brought great light over the important valley 
of the Xingu. 

Ferreira Penna, describing the tributaries of the Amazon, 
writes in the following manner over the Xingu : 

"The Xingu takes its rise in 15 S. Lat. Its principal 
affluent or confluent (for all reports make it equal to the 
Xingu itself) is the Iriri. 

" The river flows from South to North ; in its upper and 
middle courses it is often widened into lake-like expanses, 
with numerous wooded islands. It is so wide that open 
horizons are almost always seen up and down the channel. 

" Only after receiving the Iriri the river suddenly changes 
its course, and forms a great curve. At the beginning of 
this curve the Xingu is, so to speak, folded back on itself 
returning to the southeast ; here it forms a lake so wide that 
Prince Adalbert compared it to the sea ; thence the course is 
changed to the North and West until it reaches about the 
original longitude, in which it continues its course to the 
Amazon." 

" In this immense curve are the principal falls, chief 
among them that of Itamaraca, utterly impassable for any 
vessel. The water rushes down a steeply-inclined plain two 
or three miles, and then precipitates itself in a tumultuous 
.mass over a perpendicular wall of rock, forming the ' Salto 
de Itamaraca.' Fortunately for the canoe men, the river 
before it arrives at the inclined plane has divided ; the lesser 
branch, called the Tapayuna, has also many perilous rapids, 
but they are passable by small canoes at certain seasons. 
Below Itamaraca there are other falls, but small ones, which 
can be passed during the floods. Below these there are reefs 
and islands until the river finally assumes its northwest 
course, which it keeps to Porto de M6z. 

"At Lat. 3 S. there are numerous alluvial islands, and here 
the river is already three or four miles wide ; below them the 
channel is unobstructed. The greatest width between Pom- 



50 The State of Par d. 

bal and Veiros is four or five miles ; thence the river narrows 
gradually to Porto de M6z, where it is less than a mile wide." 
(Cited from H. Smith.) 

" The Xingu," writes the same explorer, " is shorter and 
smaller than the Tapajos ; its navigability, however, except- 
ing in the falls of Grande Curva, is superior. The Tapajos is 
in all its middle course obstructed by falls and rapids which 
can only be passed by land ; but the Xingu, in the corre- 
sponding portion, is quite clear. On the head waters there 
are numerous rapids, but they are all passable by ubds and 
other small canoes." 

Besides the referred Salto de Itamaracd, its most import- 
ant falls are the Taiuna and Jaraqua. 

The Xingu receives on its right margin fourteen affluents, 
and on the left, sixteen ; among them the principal being the 
Matary, the Arapary, the Jaraua, Hyabu, Bacajd, Itatd, Ituna, 
Guard, Amb6, Guiriri, or Iriri, with its confluent Carini, 
and the rivers Fresco and Cariahy that serve as a meridional 
boundary to the state of Pard. 

In its right side are situated the town of Porto de Moz, 
the village of Souzel, and the settlements of Carrazedo, 
Villarinho do Monte, Tapara, Boa-Vista, Veiros, and Pombal. 

The tide is not felt beyond this last settlement. 

Tocantins. — " It is," in the opinion of James Orton (the 
Andes and the Amazon) " a magnificent river, which waters 
the region where is to be found the most delicious climate 
of all Brazil, running over a bed of diamonds, rubies, sap- 
phires, topazes, opals, gold, silver, and petroleum."* 

Of the large rivers of Pard this certainly is the most ex- 
plored. It also rises in the " divortium aquarium " in the 
sources of the rivers Parana, Paraguay, Guapor£, and Tapajds. 
It is a question withal, yet to be decided, to which of the 
rivers falls the honor of the source of the Tocantins, if to the 
Uruhu, which rises in the meridional base of the serra 
Dourada ; if to the Almas, which has its origin in the Pyri- 
neos mountains ; or to the Maranhao, whose head is found in 
the Lagoa Formosa. That which is certain is, that all three 
contribute towards the formation of the great river ; the 

* Translated from the Portuguese. 



Physical Description. 5 1 

Uruhu, mixing with the Almas, and thus becoming enlarged, 
reunites itself with the Maranhao, whose name predominates. 
Later on, it meets, on the right, the Paranatinga, and it can 
be affirmed that it is from the junction of the two rivers that 
the Tocantins is formed. 

Thence, onwards, the largest affluent which the Tocantins 
receives, is the Araguaya, which limits Para with the state 
of Goyaz. 

Ladislao Baena gives twenty-six affluents to the Tocantins 
on the right side and twenty-five on the left. 

Below the Araguaya, except the Tocayunas and the Par- 
anamucu or the Ipahu, all are of little importance. 

The general course of the Tocantins is north, with slight 
modifications towards the west. 

From Jupatituba point, at the mouth of the Tocantins, 
until S. John of Araguaya, situated on the left margin of the 
mouth of this affluent, the distance is 258 miles, the first 
waterfall, " Guaribas," being 138 miles distant. 

Between Alcobaca and the mouth of the Araguaya are 
twenty-seven waterfalls, the principal one being Itaboca. 

Writing over the region of the low Tocantins, Ferreira 
Penna says : 

" To have an exact idea of the region of the low Tocantins, 
one glance alone at the margins of the river does not suffice ; 
it is necessary to visit them in different seasons, study their 
appearance during the overflow and during the drought, and 
carefully examine the transformations through which during 
these two seasons this region passes. No other river, in fact, 
offers so diverse an aspect in summer and winter, and it is 
this double physiognomy which has induced some to call the 
margins of the Tocantins a paradise, and others an inhos- 
pitable region. . . . 

" . . . The Tocantins, from the Guaribas waterfalls to the 
bay of Maraj6, where it receives the waters of Anapu and 
Pacaja, already mixed with a small contingent of the muddy 
Amazon, has an extension of 150 miles, running in a general 
course of S. S. W. and N. N. E. 

" Its width varies greatly with the nature and height of 
the marginal lands. Thus, when they are stony or are ele- 
vated in bars the river contracts, gaining in depth as it loses 



52 The State of Para, 

in width ; on the contrary, when they are low or form meadow- 
lands the river disperses its waters, dividing them into arms 
or branches more or less voluminous. 

" Below the village of Baiao, which is found in front of 
various islands formed by branches of the river, this reunites 
all their waters, and passes by a strait between the point 
of the eastern bank and the Mangabeiras bar, the only one 
which, in all this fluvial section, appears on the other side. 

" The strait passed, newly dividing itself into various 
branches, it progressively widens until it enters the Maraj6 
Bay, its mouth being nearly ten miles in width. 

"Among its most notable islands can be counted, the 
Jutahy formed by the bore Cachoeirinha, which unites the 
Tocantins to the Matracura, its branch ; and that of Bacury, 
formed by an arm of the river, which passes at the foot of the 
village of Baiao, commencing in front of the bar of Matracura 
and terminating a little above the strait of Mangabeiras ; to 
this are added other islands, among which figures that of 
Uaymi. 

" After the islands Jutahy and Bacury the most extensive 
are Sant' Anna, Ingapij6 and Tauar6. 

" The little islands of Guariba and Boto, in the centre of 
the cataract bearing the first of these names, and those of 
Arapapa, Pacas, Arcos and Tauajury, below this cataract, are 
almost, if not exclusively, formed of great masses of vol- 
canic rocks, crowned with a low vegetation, which con- 
trasts strongly with the luxury and opulence of that adorn- 
ing the high banks of the river. This vegetation is reduced 
to a certain species of Psidium in the groups of rocks to be 
found at the sides and below that cataract, and in the line 
of stones which accompany the right margin thence to the 
Arcos island, forming hundreds of islets on the surface of 
the water. 

"The right bank, in general, is much higher than the 
left. A line of bars, whose greatest height scarcely attains 
62 to 74 feet, extends from Limao point (below Baiao) to 
the Guaribas waterfalls, but disappearing in one or the 
other point of the bank for the interior. The knoll 
Arroyos, which reaches the height of 221 feet, is the most 
elevated point to be encountered in all this fluvial section. 
The Tocantins has no notable tributaries ; the Ipau, which 
alone could enter this class and which runs parallel to the 
Pacaja, divides its waters into two branches, one of these 
flowing into the Tocantins itself, by three mouths, under 
the names of Itacurua and Cupuioca, in front of the great 



Physical Description. 53 

island of Jutahy, and that of Carara below the bar of Mat- 
acurd. 

" The other branch, with various other channels, goes to 
form the river Jacundd, which has its bar in the end of the 
Boccas Bay." 

On the Tocantins banks lie the town of Cameta and the 
villages of Mocajuba and Baiao, besides the settlements 
of Tocantins, Limoeiro, Janua Cceli, Cametatapera, Pacaja, 
Cupij6, Parijos, Carapajo, Caripy, S. Joaquim, Pederneiras, 
Patos, Alcobaca, Arcao, and S. Joao d' Araguaya. 

The railway, already planned, which is to unite Alcobaca 
with the Rainha shore, above S. Joao d' Araguaya, thus con- 
quering the difficulties of the waterfall section of the river, 
and uniting the high Araguaya with the low Tocantins, 
will act, aided by steam navigation in the two rivers, as a 
powerful chain which shall unite the states of Goyaz and 
Para, and will be a fertile element of prosperity to the 
Tocantins region. 

Touching this much disputed question, as to whether the 
Tocantins is or is not a tributary of the Amazon, says the 
very illustrious Dr. Francisco da Silva Castro : 

" A simple glance at the hydrographical position of the 
Amazon and Tocantins, separated one from the other by a 
land zone of more than forty leagues in width, amply suf- 
fices to show that many errors have been committed by 
geographers, who suppose the Tocantins to be an affluent of 
the Amazon ; and really I am not surprised at this error, as 
none of them have visited the country, and attracted by the 
enthusiasm which the majestic corpulence of the great river 
excites, they do not hesitate in rendering it blind homage ; 
lending it a mouth of sixty leagues in width, from the Tijoca 
point to the Northern Cape, and sacrificing to it as a vassal 
the Tocantins, simply because this river has the audacity to 
discharge its waters in the same region overpowered by the 
Amazon. 

" No. . . . the waters of the Tocantins run separately 
along the meridional border of the great island of Joannes or 
Marajo, while those of the Amazon bathe the northern mar- 
gin of the same island, without ever intermingling. And if 
by the affluent of one river is understood that other, which 
with its waters goes on to enlarge those of the first, then 



54 The State of Para. 

rather let the Amazon be considered an affluent of the To- 
cantins, for the reason that, by the two channels of Tajipuru 
and Breves, it sends a portion of its waters to the Melgaco 
and Breves Bays, prolongation of that of Maraj6, where 
glide the waters of the Tocantins. 

" If the island of Maraj(5 is mentally abstracted, there 
remains a wide, deep cove, whose mouth or cord, taken by 
the point of Tijoca and by the Northern Cape, will have 
approximately 60 leagues of extension. By the northern 
division of the enseatic curve — that is, by the Macapd coast 
to the Northern Cape, the Amazon empties its waters in the 
direction that this same coast is washed by them ; and by 
the southern coast — that is, of the capital (Bel£m) to Tijoca, 
the Tocantins empties its waters in a direction almost 
parallel to the Amazon, for the reason that the Tocantins, 
running from south to north, inclines to northeast from the 
town of Cameta to its mouth, in an extension of 40 miles, 
the beds of the two rivers then remaining more than 40 
leagues distant one from the other — the shortest distance. 

" The island of Maraj6, being placed precisely between 
these two rivers, within this space of 40 leagues, and pro- 
longing itself to the cord or mouth of the cove, completed 
the separation, preventing the intermingling of the two 
waters, even in the ocean." 

Para River. — This is the name given to the fluvial section 
to the south and east of the island of Maraj6, from the Bay 
of Goiabal to Tijoca Point and Cape Maguary on the ocean, 
and which serves as a drain or discharge to the waters of the 
Tocantins (whose direction it follows, inclining towards the 
northeast) ; to the different rivers and igarape's (channels) 
parallel to it, and that have their mouths in the bays of 
Portel, Melgago, Boccas and others ; to the waters of Moju, 
Acard, Guamd, Capim, and Guajard, and all that run to the 
bays of these names, of Santo Antonio, of Sol and Maraj6 ; 
as well as the waters of the Amazon which form the western 
boundary of that island, crossing the labyrinth of canals 
which are called Tagipuru, Macacos, Jaburu, and Bore of 
the Company, etc., and which give reason to extend the 
estuary of the Amazon to Tijoca Point, and also give rise 
to the opinion, by many accepted, that the Tocantins is a 
branch of the great river. 



Physical Description. 5 5 

The Araguary. — Granted that the mouth of the Amazon 
extends to the Northern Cape, this is the last important 
branch on the left margin. 

It rises in the mountain ridges of Tumuc-Humac, at two 
degrees, more or less, north latitude, and running in an 
easterly and southeasterly direction, receives the waters of 
the Tracuatuba and Mapary, and passes through a territory, 
generally elevated, as far as the last cataract, that of the 
Mongubas, near the serra of this name, where the river 
returns northeast and, following a sinuous course, and after 
488 kilometres, empties its waters thirty-five miles below the 
Northern Cape, having previously received in its left margin 
its principal branch, the Aporema. 

Below the cataract, which is 130 miles from its mouth, the 
lands and the banks of the river are low and marshy, and 
near this place, at the left bank of the river, is the military 
colony of Pedro II., founded in 1840, and the Colony Fer- 
reira Gomes, at the right bank, founded in 1890. 

The Amapa, Mayacare" , Calsoene, and Coanani, which 
flow above the Northern Cape into the Atlantic Ocean, 
though little explored, are so many other large rivers, of 
which special mention has been made in discussions over the 
boundary question of French Guiana. 

The CASSIPORE has, like these last, its rise in the serra 
of Tumuc-Humac, and flows in a northeasterly course to the 
ocean at 4 15' north latitude, forming the Cape Cassi- 
pore. Its principal branch, by the left margin, is the Juisa ; 
and, according to the account of the natives, who know well 
this region, a great branch extends to the south, establishing 
the junction of the river with the Araguary. 

The Oyapoc. — This is the great river whose geographical 
situation appears really destined to the aim for which it is 
given — the separation of Brazilian lands to the ocean, up to 
its source, made by the mountains of the system Parima. 

It rises in the extreme east of the Tumuc-Humac mountain 
ridges, and in the southwesterly to the northeasterly direc- 
tion it runs to the ocean, where its mouth lies between Silver 
Mountain and Orange Cape, at 4 22' north latitude. 



c6 The State of Para. 

The Oyapoc counts several branches, such as the Camopi, 
the Memoria, and the Cuericourt, the Uassu being the prin- 
cipal, which at its right bank runs in near the mouth of the 
river. 

The Oyapoc is the celebrated river of Vincent Pinson, 
determined by the Utrecht treaty to be the boundary of 
Brazilian territory, to which we have already referred. 

The JamundA is another boundary river of Para ; it 
separates the state from that of Amazon. 

Ferreira Penna, who best studied the Lower Amazon 
region, through which it runs, thus describes it : 

"This river must come from the central region comprised 
in the space between the high Trombetas to the north, and 
the Uatuman to the south. Thence descending the Ja- 
munda, in the beginning, probably runs E. S. E., between 
mountains; receiving small branches, it afterwards directs 
its course S. E., crossing small cataracts, and enters a spacious 
plain, or valley, densely wooded, but sometimes marshy. 
Accompanying this plain, issues from its left margin an arm, 
which, bearing its name, crosses it and empties itself in the 
Trombetas, exactly at the point in which this river, jumping 
the last cataract, enters also the valley. 

" While crossing this flat region, the Jamunda is nearly 
obstructed by an infinity of islands, which follow its wind- 
ings until near the confluence of the Pratucu, not exceeding 
250 metres in width, which in summer is reduced to 150, and 
even 100, according to the greater or less duration of the 
dry season. 

" Before reaching the Pratucu, it leaves the valley, and 
then its banks become high and sometimes mountainous. 

" The Pratucu, which is a smaller branch, runs more or 
less parallel for some time to the Jatapu (a tributary of the 
Uatuman), follows an eastern course, and reunites itself with 
the Jamunda, nearly 36 miles above Faro. Its course is 
sinuous, and between low mountains or serras, as almost 
all of this region, and in its bar, in the Jamunda, divides itself 
into three unequal arms, with two islands between. 

"At the point of the junction of the two rivers, the waters 
expand considerably, forming a vast bay, almost surrounded 
by high lands and mountains ; a little below is the extensive 
island Capixauaramonha, composed of rocky lands, but 
covered by trees. 



Physical Description. 57 

" Two serros spring in the right margin of the river in 
front of the two points of that island ; that of Dedal frontier 
to the superior point, and Copo in front to the inferior point ; 
this last is a high rock which lies almost perpendicularly to 
the river. 

" Leaving the bay, the Jamunda flows east, in a consider- 
able stretch, scarcely making slight bends ; and after eighteen 
or twenty miles of this course, it describes a vast-S-inverse, 
at the end of which it enters in an easterly course into the 
Faro Lake, leaving the village of this name to the northern 
point of its entrance. 

" From the confluence of the Pratucu, the Jamunda is a 
vast, magnificent river, of deep blue color, flowing almost 
always between mountains clothed with vigorous vegetation, 
cut in by points and coves, and bordered by beaches of 
snow-white sands, — constant accidents which attend its 
course to Faro Lake. 

" Here terminate the serras, or hills, which accompany it ; 
here disappear the beaches of sand and brilliant vegetation ; 
here finish the undulating lands, and commence the almost 
level lands of the Amazon ; here is, finally, the true mouth 
of the Jamunda. 

" Indeed, the lake scarcely closes at the Western side and 
the Jamunda withdraws itself in a narrow bed, and there, on 
the right margin, enters the Cabury, the first branch or 
Parana-miry which the Amazon sends to it. 

" The river loses its superb aspect ; its bed narrows ; its 
course becomes vacillating, its color somewhat lighter with 
the small quantity of whitened waters of the Cabury ; vege- 
tation loses all its splendor, and its banks are slightly bor- 
dered by a narrow line of middling-size trees alternating with 
grasses, cyperaceas, and other herbaceous plants, which cover 
its vast coast surface. 

"The river does not take a Northerly to a Southerly 
course, as has been pretended, but a general course E. N. E. to 
Parana-miry do Caldeirao. In this section it is accompanied, 
near the margin, by a series of lakes, some large, like the 
Carauary, Algodoal, and Arakicaua, or smaller, like the Mara- 
cana, Ubim, Abaucu, etc., on whose shores are a number of 
country-houses, with small plantations, as in the meadows 
are many herdsmen's huts, also those of keepers of cattle 
estates. 

" Leaving the lake Arakigaua, which is the last of this sec- 
tion, the river widens 300 metres, turning to the north, 
passing the place called Repartimento, where it receives in 



58 The State of Para. 

its right bank, which now is the Eastern, the Parana-miry 
do Caldeirao, which comes from the Amazon. 

" Placid, wide and of crystalline purity, the Jamunda, re- 
ceiving this branch of the Amazon, totally changes its physi- 
ognomy ; its bed narrows and deepens; it makes a precipitate 
headway, and its waters take a yellowish-olive color, losing 
all their transparency. 

" Hence its general course, until it is lost in the Trombetas, 
is N. E., making however, numerous windings, now to the 
North, now to the East, and occasionally to N. N. w. Its banks 
are still bordered by a narrow fringe of trees, behind which 
are only seen herbaceous plants and various lakes. 

" In this passage it leaves to the left the bore of Paciencia, 
which gives entrance to the lake Piraruaca, the Carana, Maria- 
pixy and Sapucua, which come from lakes of the same names. 

" On the right or Eastern bank, are also seen some insig- 
nificant bores, which come from small marshes that accom- 
pany it. 

" It enters into the Trombetas in front of the Urua-tapera 
point, with ioo metres of width, the island Jacitara lying at 
the North of its mouth. 

" The extension of the course of the Jamunda in the val- 
leys is not less than 28 leagues, 14 being in the 1st section 
of Faro to Repartimento, and 14 in the 2d section of Re- 
partimento to Trombetas. 

" Then it is seen that the Jamunda, contrary to what has 
been affirmed, is actually a tributary of the Trombetas and 
not of the Amazon." 

The Curua do Norte or " Curua Panema." — This is 
an extensive but narrow river, which, from the high campos 
of Brazilian Guiana, to the north of the territory of Alem- 
quer, runs in a southerly course, with some sinuosities over 
the S. W. and several secondary arms, crossing a notably 
fertile zone, in which abound the tonka-beans, Para-nuts, and 
vegetable drugs. Unhappily in a part of its course, the low- 
lands are in certain seasons insalubrious. From these low- 
lands the last name Curua Panema is applied to the river. 
Always in that direction the river joins Lake Curua in two 
fork-like branches, one losing itself in the Parana-miry de 
Alemquer, crossing a succession of small lakes, and the other 
joining the igarape" of Itacarara, which washes the city of 
Alemquer. 



Physical Description. 59 

The settlement of Curua is the most important on its 
bank. 

Accompanying the left bank of the river, a wagon-road is 
being opened, which, leaving the town of Alemquer, is des- 
tined to establish communication between the referred cam- 
pos, and the same town. 

The Anapu. — It has its sources in the serras, which divide 
themselves in the south of the state at the height of the 
great curve of the Xingu, and takes a southern to a northern 
course to the island of Jacitara, receiving some branches, of 
which the most important are the Tuere and the Prauacuni. 
Thence it widens in a southeasterly to a northwesterly di- 
rection, forming its first bay, called Pracupy, in which flows 
the river of the same name. Afterwards it unites its waters 
in a strait called Castanhal, opening further on a vast bay 
called Camuhy. 

Leaving this the river follows an easterly course. By the 
bore of Pacajahy, it connects with the Pacaja, forming newly 
a deep strait and afterwards emptying its waters in the 
extreme northwest of the Bay of Portel. 

This river is the longest and most important of those 
between the Tocantins and Xingu. It has several water- 
falls, many branches, and is navigable from its mouth to the 
confluence of the Tuere, nearly 140 kilometres. 

The banks of the Anapu are high and delightful, in the 
lower part, and mountainous in the upper. 

The Pacaja. — It descends in the same course as the 
preceding, flowing through a mountainous region, receiving 
as branches in the left bank the Iryuana and the Aratau. 
When it meets the Pacajahy, it suddenly turns towards the 
east, joining its waters to those of the Camaraipy, which is 
parallel to it, and enters into the Bay of Portel. 

It is navigable to a great length only to the first cat- 
aracts. 

The Jacunda. — This is a short river, the direction of its 
course being, more or less, the same as of the former. It 
enters into the Bay of the Boccas. 

In the first 66 kilometres, counting the mouth, its length 



60 The State of Para. 

varies between 200 and 600 metres, with sufficient depth for 
steam navigation. The banks of the Jacunda are low in 
the inferior section, and high in the superior. 

TheAraticu. — Without forgetting the Taquary, Panauba, 
and Mocajatuba, which have a certain notable extension, it 
may be added that the Araticu is the most important river 
after the Pacaja, above the Tocantins, which it follows more 
or less in a parallel direction. 

This river is notable from its communication, which, by 
means of an arm that enters the Lake of Gold, establishes a 
communication with the Paranamucu, which flows into the 
Tocantins in front of the large island of Juruty, above the 
Bay of Baiao. 

On its left margin and near the mouth is situated the 
village of Oeiras. 

The Guama and CAPIM are the two rivers from whose 
confluence is formed the Guajara, which flows southeast of 
the capital, into the great bay, which has its name. The 
first rises in the serras, which at the southeast of the state 
and below 3 of south latitude shoots into branches from 
the serra da Desordem and Piracambu, in the state of 
Maranham, and runs in a northern direction above the vil- 
lage of Ourem, turning rapidly towards the W. to meet the 
Capim. Navigable until below that village, it receives on 
both sides of its margins several branches, the principal being 
Irituia, a narrow and very sinuous river, on whose banks 
is situated the village of the same name. 

In front of the village of Ourem is the second waterfall of 
the river, which impedes its navigation ; the first being pas- 
sable at full tide in front of the town of S. Miguel, below the 
mouth of the Irituia. 

Capim has its origin at the serra da Desordem or in the 
serra dos Coroados, as is generally called the mountainous 
section inhabited by the indigenous tribe of this name. 
Formed by the confluence of the rivers Surubiu and Araran- 
deua, in a sufficiently sinuous course, the river follows a 
northeasterly direction until it receives the waters of the 
Candiru, its principal branch, and thence it returns to the 



Physical Description. 61 

north, until its junction with the Guama. On the right side 
is situated the settlement of Capim, and in the upper part 
different settlements of pacific Indians. 

At the angle formed by the reunion of the two rivers is 
the village of S. Domingos da B6a- Vista. 

The Guajara. — It is, as has been said, the continuation 
of the Guama enlarged by the waters of the Capim. Its 
width, in the mean, is half a mile, not offering withal free 
navigation to large steamers, on account of the sand-banks, 
which obstruct, more or less, its mouth. The direction of 
the Guajara is generally from east to west, describing below 
the river Bujaru to the front of the fasenda Pernambuco, a 
rapid curve in the form of a horseshoe. 

The principal branches, all narrow, are the river Bujaru, 
Ihangapy, and Caraparu. 

The Acara and Moju are two important rivers which 
flow into the bay of Guajara. Both have their sources in 
the lowlands between the Tocantins and the Capim. 

The Acara is formed by the reunion of two distinct 
branches, one the Rio Pequeno, which accompanies in a 
north course, the course of the Capim describing many sinuous 
curves, and the other, the Acara properly said, which goes 
from the S. S. W. to the N. N. E. until it unites with the first. 
• Afterwards, below the confluence and on the left bank, is 
the village of Acara. Hence the river turns N. W. and after 
it meets the Moju, it loses itself in the great bay. 

Although the igarape's, its affluents, are numerous they 
are still of little importance. 

The course of the Moju is less extensive ; it has the same 
sources as the Acara, but the direction of its course is oppo- 
site. It runs first to the N. W. until it meets the Caijary and 
thence directs itself in a N. E. direction to join the Acara. 

On its bank lie the settlement of Cairary and the village 
of Moju. 

A canal which goes to a place called " Entre Ilhas " con- 
nects the Moju with the Tocantins and Abaet£. 

In the region called Salgado, which extends from Tij oca- 
point to the mouth of the Gurupy, several rivers flow in the 



62 The State of Pard. 

ocean. These are all narrow, small rivers. Their sources 
often mingle with the branches of the Guama, which flow in 
opposite directions. 

The principal are the Mojuim or Salgado, on whose banks 
lies the village of S. Caetano, the Marapanim, on whose 
mouth is the village of the same name ; the Maracana or 
Cintra River, thus called from the town found here, the 
Quatipuru, which crosses the campos to which it gave the 
name, the Caete\ which after it passes the settlement of 
Tentugal washes the city of Braganca, and the Piria. 

The first three run more or less in a N. N. W. direction 
and the last incline towards the N. E. 

The region which they cross is generally fertile and agri- 
culture is there more largely developed. 

The Gurupy. — This forms the boundary between Pard 
and Maranham, and although narrow, its width reaching 
scarcely 400 metres, it is of considerable importance on ac- 
count of the richness of the fertile territory which it crosses 
and so auriferous that in its bed the sands are constantly 
mixed with spangles of gold, for which the natives search, 
following the old system. 

It has its source in the serra da Desordem at 4 40' S. 
latitude, being its original river, the Cajuap&ra. The course 
of the river is N. E. to the 4 , and thence flows to the N. with 
few windings. It receives several branches, principally at the 
right, the most notable being the Gurupy-miry, Pimental, 
Ubinzal, Gurupy-una, Coaracy-parana, Pirateua, and 
Tapuruteua. 

At the left margin of this river is the settlement of Gurupy 
and village of Vizeu, 27 kilometres from its mouth on the 
ocean. 

From the lowlands in the island of Marajo" irradiates also 
a system of numerous natural canals appropriate to the 
desiccation of the island. To the north are directed the Tar- 
tarugas, the Ganhoao and Arapixy, risen in the Mondongos 
in the centre of the island, and the Caju-una, which, by 
three mouths above Chaves, enters into the Amazon, passing 
the village of Affua. 



Physical Description, 63 

To the south of the island run the Anabiju, the Atuha 
the Pracuuba, the Canaticu, and the Piria. The Atuha has its 
sources in the forests and the Anabiju in the campos, min- 
gling itself with the sources of the Anajas, and following the 
first in a southeasterly course, and the last in a southerly- 
course, approximating each other and lastly joining until 
they flow into the bay of Goiabal. From the confluence 
of the two rivers there comes another branch which is 
called Furo do Atuha, (on whose bank is the village of 
Muana) which enters in the same bay. 

The Pracuuba rises in the forests to the south of the 
head-waters of the Atuha and the Canaticu, and the Piria in 
the marshy forests where also rises the Mapud. Of this and of 
larger extension is the Canaticu, which to a great length is 
navigable for steamers and is the most important. Between 
the mouths of the Piria and Canaticu is situated the 
flourishing village of Curralinho. 

The rivers which follow the eastern and western sides of 
the island are of greater importance : the first, on the eastern 
side, cross the part of the island in which predominates the 
farming industry, and the last that in which the rubber 
industry is most developed and where is found a numerous 
population occupied in this industry. 

Among these the principal are the Paracauary or Igarap6- 
Grande, on whose margin is situated the beautiful town of 
Soure ; the Camara and the Arary. 

The Arary. — This river rises in the large Arary lake, 
which by the Genipapucu communicates with the Tartarugas, 
and in a sinuous march follows a southeasterly direction. A 
little below the lake it receives, on the right margin, the 
waters of the Anajas-miry, lower down, in the middle of its 
course, and above the village of Cachoeira, which it washes, 
it receives the waters of the Goyapy. From this village 
downwards, the river narrows ; but after reaching the banks 
of Moirim, it changes its course easterly, widening until it 
flows in an E. N. E. course to the bay of Maraj6, leaving at 
its right the island of Sant'Anna do Arary. 

During the summer, tidal influence shows itself only a little 



64 The State of Par d. 

above the Cachoeira, and during the winter the flow is hardly 
sensible above Moirim. 

A singular fact happens in the commencement of this last- 
named season, which is, that the waters of the Arary run in 
two opposite directions : those of the lesser half towards the 
mouth, and those of the greater half run on to the lake of 
the same name, whence they recede as the lake fills up. 

The AnajAs is the river of the greatest course and the 
mightiest in the island of Maraj6. It rises in the central 
plain, in the same lowlands in which the Anajas-miry and 
Anabiju have their sources, and runs in a westerly to a 
northwesterly course, by a great number of canals, into the 
Amazon, and in the bay called Vieiras. In the right bank 
it receives two important branches : the Mocooes, which has 
its origin in the low lands of Acapu and follows a southwest- 
erly direction, joining it in front of the village of Anajas ; and 
the Cururu which, leaving the extreme west of the Mondon- 
gos, runs on to the west, receiving the waters of the Jurupucu 
and of the Jurara-parana, and here returns to the south, 
joining the Anajas, below the island of Breu. 

The ARAMAN. — This is no more than a southern division of 
the Anajds, when this reaches the island of Breu. The general 
course is to W. S. W : its principal branch is the Mapua. 

Canals. 

Indescribable are the series of canals where flow the rivers 
of Para. Rivers and igaraph often cut, interrupt, bifurcate 
themselves, in a crossing so complicated that they form a 
real labyrinth, the importance of which, in relation to the 
hydrography of the region, is easy to estimate. 

Withal, one should not omit to point out the small rivers 
and the more important bores ; these are : the bore of 
Caldeirao and Parana-miry of Bom Jardim, which unite the 
Jamunda with the Amazon, the Cachoeiry, which communi- 
cates this with the Trombetas, the bore of Sale, which, 
starting from the Amazon, in front of the island of Santa 
Rita of the district of Obidos, joins itself to the series of 



Physical Description. 65 

lakes of the district of Villa Franca, and opens communica- 
tion until in front of the island of Arapiry, belonging to 
Alemquer; the Parana-mirys of Obidos, Alemquer, and 
Monte-Alegre, simple derivations of the Amazon itself ; the 
bores of Ituquy and Mahica in Santarem ; the bores of 
Aquiqui and Urucuricaya, which give passage from the 
Amazon to the Xingu ; the bores of Vieira, Vieirinha, 
Mututy, and Ituquara, between the islands of the mouth of 
the Amazon ; the Tajapuru, Bore of the Company, Jaburu, 
Macacos, Aturid, Bore of Melgaco, river of Breves, and 
Boiossu, to the west of the island of Maraj6 ; the Bore of 
Pacajahy, which joins the river Anapu to Pacaja ; the Bore 
of Campinas, which communicates the " Bay of Melgaco " 
with the " Bay of Boccas " ; the canal of Anapu, which joins 
the Moju with the Tocantins ; the Bore of Arrozal, to the 
south of the island of Carnapij6 ; the Bore of Laura, which 
forms the island of Collares, and on whose margins are the 
settlement of Porto Salvo and the town of Vigia ; and the 
Bore of Page between Curuca and Marapanim. 

Between the Caviana and Mexiana islands run the Canal 
Perigoso, and the Carapaporis or of Maracd in the coast of 
the Northern Cape lands, forming a western limit to the 
island of Maraca. 

Lakes. 

There are very few important lakes in this state ; withal, 
in the western region corresponding to the districts of Monte- 
Alegre, Alemquer, Santarem, and Obidos, and in the lands 
denominated Northern Cape lands, there are a numerous 
succession ; the greater part, however, of small dimensions, 
disapppear in long dry seasons. 

Among the first are: the Great Lake of Monte-Alegre. 
situated in the plains to the S. W. of the town of the same 
name, to the south and somewhat removed from the serras 
of Erer6, Maxira, and Monte Grande, being twenty-five miles 
in length and three to five in width, and, as its dependants, 
the Piracaba to the west of the bar of the Maycuru River 



66 The State of Para. 

and the Jacar£-capa to the southwest of the preceding, with 
which it communicates, and the Uxiaca to the S. W. of this 
last ; the Paracary to the S. E. of Alemquer, and accompany- 
ing the Tapara River to a great distance, to within three 
miles of its margin ; the Curumu, behind the town of 
Alemquer, the Curua, and Botos, which mingle in one, near 
the left bank of the Amazon and below the division of the 
river Curud ; the Tostao to the S. W. of this last, which ac- 
companies the Parana-miry of Obidos and, through the bores 
of Arraia and Suisso, communicates with the Amazon ; the 
Macard to the N. W. of the Botos, already near the highland, 
and as continuation of the Bore Mamauru ; the Mamauru 
near the mouth of this bore and of the igarape (channel) 
Curucambaua ; the Great Lake of Villa Franca, the Pogao 
Grande, the Sal£, and the Curumucury, on the left margin 
of the Amazon, in the plains of the district of Villa Franca, 
near the serras of Axicara, Aracury, Piraquara, and Curumu- 
cury — all connected and communicating with the Amazon 
by the bores of Curumucury, Irateua, and Muiratuba, crossing 
a gigantic forest from five to six miles in extent ; the lake 
of Salgado, on the bank of the river Cumina ; the Arapecu, 
Jamary, Mura, Xiriri, Parauacu, and many others on the 
bank of the Trombetas ; the lake Sapucua, near the serra 
of Sapucua and whose margins, it is said, were inhabited by 
the celebrated tribe of Amazonian warriors ; the Mariapixi, 
Urupana, Algodoal, and Uruana, all on the margin of the 
Jamunda, the Lago de Faro, which washes the village of 
the same name ; and the Capixauaramonha, at the base of 
the serras of Dedal and of the Copo, formed by the meeting 
of the river Pratucu with the Jamunda. 

In the lands of the Northern Cape the principal lakes are : 
the Novo, strewn with islands to the north of the mouth 
of Araguary ; the Piratuba, near the Northern Cape, and 
whence rises the river of the same name, which empties into 
the ocean ; Lake Jaca to the south of the bay of Maraca ; 
Lakes Comprido, Pracuuba, Culluxd, and Mapa, formed by 
the rivers Tartarugal, Frechal, and the igarape* oi Serra which 
flows into the river Amapa, and whose margins France has 



Physical Description. 67 

endeavored to occupy, establishing military posts, or missions 
of catechists. 

In the centre of Maraca Island is found a lake of the same 
name, which merits special mention on account of its 
excellent fishing. 

The island of Marajo also has a number, among which 
the Arary, the Tartarugas, the Santa Cruz, the Alcapao, the 
Aruans, the Guajara, the Soco, the Jacare, are the most 
important. The Arary is the principal among them and has 
18 kilometres of length from the N. to the S., and 4 of 
width, with a flat island, called Mae Joaquina, in its northern 
point. 

The depth of Lake Arary, which in summer varies from 1 
to 2\ metres, in winter rises from 5 to 7, the water being 
very crystalline and zinc-colored in this season. 

Bays. 

Leaving the Gurupy mouth, and accompanying the coast 
of the continent to Tij6ca Point, a large number of bays are 
to be found, viz. : Gurupy, Piria-una, Piria-tinga, Copuam- 
baba, Cenamboca, Punga, Caete, Marauafuba, Quatipuru, 
Japirica, Pirabas, Inaja, Arapepo, Salinas, Maracana, Mara- 
panim, Piracaimbaua, and Cajutuba. Almost all are the 
drains of other rivers of the same name, the Caete being the 
largest among them, some of them offering excellent 
anchorages. 

Between the Collares islands, the Pombas, Mosqueiro, and 
the continent lies the bay of Sol ; and between this last 
island and that of Barreiras and Tatuoca is the bay of Santo 
Antonio. In front of the capital, with 12 kilometres of en- 
trance, is the bay of Guajara, formed by the junction of the 
Guajara, Acara, and Moju. Formed by the river Para, ex- 
tends and doubles with a considerable width and extension 
the beautiful bay of Marajo between the eastern side of the 
island of this name and the continent. Above it are found 
the bays of Pracuuba and the B6ccas, which terminate in 
the bore Paranau. In the entrance of the Tocantins is found 
the wide bay of Marapata. 



68 The State of Para. 

Formed by the river Anapu are found the bays of Pra- 
cupy, where empties the river of the same name, and in its 
continuation that of the Castanhal, Cacuajd, Caxiuna, and 
Camuhy ; and by the waters of the Pacaja and Camaraipy, 
enlarged by the Acutipireira e Mocajatuba, is found the bay 
of Portel, with 49 kilometres of length and between 2 to 7 in 
width, in front of the village of the same name, receiving 
below the name of Melgaco Bay when in front of another 
village of the same name. 

To the west of the island of Maraj6 the bay of Vieiras 
extends, and into this empty the Anajaz and the Chara- 
pucu, and in front of the town of Macapa the bay of 
Macapa. 

In the district of Santarem, W. N. W. of this town, lies 
on the left side of the Tapaj6s the bay of Villa Franca, with 
beautiful coves on the north side, formed by that river and 
the Arapiuns. 

Islands. 

The description which we have given of the large hydro- 
graphic system of this valley, leaves to the imagination the 
different number of islands, which are to be found in the 
state, whether along the coast, or strewn about in the rivers. 
The principal ones are, the : 

Island of Marajo. — Of old, this island was denominated 
the Nheengaibas, because of the different and difficult 
languages spoken by the Indians which inhabited it. This 
name was afterwards substituted by the one of Great Island 
of Joannes, until Marajo was applied, primarily to its 
meridional part. 

The island of Maraj6 occupies a surface of nearly 42,000 
square kilometres, corresponding to 96 miles N. to S., 
and 127 E. to W. ; and in this are situated the towns of 
Soure, Breves, and Chaves ; the villages of Muana, Curra- 
linho, S. Sebastiao da Boa-Vista, Monsaras, Cachoeira, 
Ponta de Pedras, Anajas, and Affua, besides the settlements 
of Salvaterra, Monfort, Condeixa, and Trovao. 



Physical Description. 69 

The island of Marajo is naturally divided into two distinct 
sections, one to the campos to the N. and E., and the 
other to the forests, W. and S., in a manner that, sup- 
pose an imaginary line to be drawn from the mouth of 
Cajuuna, and terminating in the mouth of Atua, thus could 
be established more or less a separation of the two sections ; 
the first applied to cattle raising, where exist nearly 300 
estates, and the other to the extraction of rubber. 

Ferreira Penna, who deserves to be always quoted, de- 
scribes in the following manner the coasts of the island of 
Marajd : 

" The coasts of the island differ among themselves, accord- 
ing to the waters which bathe them, and thus on the coast 
or margins of the west are only found lowlands, muddy and 
clayey, and on the same coast, N., blown over by winds, 
it presents a reddish, sandy appearance. This sand becomes 
hard cemented by clay, forming shallow lakes, over which 
the waves of the river roll and are torn in pieces. 

" Both coasts are bathed by the Amazon. 

" The southern and northern coast, on the contrary, chiefly 
from the bars of the Tocantins down, is distinguished by 
the frequent presence of stones (coarse and ferruginous 
sandstones), and beautiful banks of snow-white sand; but 
what above all distinguishes the difference noted, is that the 
eastern coast, in a longitudinal band which does not exceed 3 
miles in its greatest width based over the reefs, elevates itself, 
with some interruptions, to a superior height to the general 
level of the island ; withal this elevation does not reach a 
sufficient height to form a hill." 

CAVIANA and Mexiana are the names of the two large 
islands which to the north of the preceding are found in the 
mouth of the Amazon, cut by the line of the equator, the first 
to the S. and the other to the N., and where great campos 
for cattle raising are also found, and to the industry of 
which they are applied. 

The Caviana measures 47 miles in its greatest extension 
E. and W., and 30 to the N. and S. ; and the Mexiana 
27 miles E. to W., and 24 N. to S. 

A canal 7 kilometres in width, which is called the Perigoso 
canal, separates the two islands. 



jo The State of Para. 

Ilha Grande de Gurupa. — This is the most extensive 
of the islands situated in the estuary of the Amazon, com- 
mencing in the heights of the bar of Xingu and reaching 
until near Mazagao, frontier of the bar of the river Maraca, 
with an expanse of 78 miles S. W. to N. E. and 29 east to 
west. 

This island separates the mouth of the Amazon into two 
great branches, the western accompanying the continent, 
and the eastern, which receives the waters of the Xingu, 
washing the coast of the island of Marajo. 

To the N. and E. of the island of Gurupa the number of 
adjacent islands is considerable, all of them of great impor- 
tance, on account of the richness of their rubber forests. 

We should note among them the islands of Porcos, Para, 
Conceicao, Cavallos, Maracuja, Caldeirao, Pracuuba, Pracuu- 
binha, Mututy, Roberta, Aranahy, Baquia, Urutahy, and 
Gurupa. The island of Santa Anna to the N., in the mouth 
of the river Matapy, is celebrated in Para history by the 
important figure which it represented, being the theatre of 
the great combats between Portuguese and Dutch, when 
they mutually disputed the possession of that opulent 
region. 

On the coast of the Amazon are noted the islands of 
Curaua Brigue, Bailique, and other smaller ones ; and 
farther on above the Northern Cape is found the island of 
Maraca, 26 miles in extension N. to S. and 20 E. to W. 

Numberless are the islands situated to the west of the 
island of Marajo and formed by the network of canals, 
which we have described ; we should withal quote among 
them the islands of Anajas, Jacar£, Curumu, Tajapuru, 
Mutumquara, Arama, Jaburu, Macacos, islands of Com- 
panhia, Aturia, and Pracachy ; and farther on above the bay 
of Portel, the island of Pacajahy with 23 miles of extension 
and 9 of width N. to S. 

In front of the capital is the island of Ongas, which limits 
the bay of Guajara ; and after that follows Arapiranga, 
Carnapij6, Cotijuba, and Tatuoca, which during the revolu- 
tion of 1835 was the seat of the Para Presidency. 



Physical Description. y\ 

Accompanying the coast to the mouth of Gurupy are 
found the island of Barreiras ; that of Mosqueiro, where 
to-day is found a flourishing settlement ; that of Pombas ; 
Collares, in which lies the village of the same name ; Tijdca, 
Cajutuba, Marapanim, Taquiry, Maiandeua, Praia Grande, 
Caete, Northern Island, Punga, Preatinga, and Manegituba. 

In the Tocantins should be mentioned the islands of 
Araraim, Paqueta, Juaba, Mararia, Bacury, Jutahy, which is 
the largest of them ; the Guaribas, where is the first water- 
fall ; the Tocantins, Areiao, Valentim, and the Rainha Island. 

In the mouth of the Xingu are found Cujuba, Urucury- 
caia, Macacos, Tapara and Aquiqui. 

Thence forward along the Amazon are worthy of note 
the islands of Comandahy, Jurupary, Paranaquara Uruara, 
Itanduba, Frechal, Barreiras, Ituqui, islands of Tapara, 
Arapiry, Marimarituba, island of Printes, Capella, Santa 
Rita, islands Maracauassu and Juruty. 

In the Tapajds also are found a great number of islands, 
all, withal, of straitened dimensions, and the greater part in 
the upper course. The island Copary, in front of the settle- 
ment of Aveiros, is nearest the mouth. 

Coast, Capes, and Lighthouses. 

In all Brazil, Para is the state which has the greatest line 
of sea-coast, its length from Orange Cape to the mouth of 
Gurupy measuring nearly 700 miles. Only four large capes 
advance toward the ocean, without counting the small 
points of out jutting land comprised between said river and 
Tijoca Point. They are : the Maguary, to the northeast of 
the island of Marajd ; the Northern, in the extreme east of 
the coast of Carapaporis ; the Cassipor£, to the right bank 
of the mouth of the same name; and the Orange, in the 
same side of the mouth of Oyapoc. 

Both on this coast as on the river bars are found various 
lighthouses, which give free entrance to the river bars. The 
principal are : the Salinas lighthouse at Atalaya Point, o° 36' 
2" S. lat. and 4 12' 24' of long. W. of Rio de Janeiro, diop- 



72 The State of Para. 

trie of the 3d order of light, reaching 31,500 metres, with 
lenticular implements of the system Fresnell and Arago and a 
clear light of equal duration lasting 70 seconds ; the Braganga 
lighthouse fluctuating in the banks of the same name, 14 
fathoms deep, catoptric, fixed, reaching 14,800 metres, and 
dissipating light by eight lamps with reflector disposed in 
a circle ; and the lighthouses, dioptric of the 6th order, of 
Chapeo Virado at i° 5' of S. lat, and 5 19/ 54" W. long. ; 
that of Collares at o° 53' 30" S. lat. and 5 f 48" W. long. ; 
that of Forte da Barra at i° 20' 30" S. lat., and 5 20' 48* 
W. long.; that of Cotijuba at i° 13' 15" S. lat. and 5 26' 
o" W. long. ; that of Soure at o° 40' 42' S. lat. and 5 19/ 
45" W. long. ; that of the island of Capim at 1° 35' S. lat. 
and 5 42' 44" W. long. ; that of the island of Goiabal at 
i° 39' 33" S. lat., and 6° o' 08" W. long.; that of Jutahy 
at i° 51' 15" S. lat., and 6° 40' o" W. long. ; and finally the 
Marianno at i° 47' 30" S. lat. and f 8' 30" long. W. of 
Rio Janeiro, all with fixed light reaching 13 kilometres. 



PART III. 

PUBLIC INSTRUCTION. 



73 



PUBLIC INSTRUCTION. 

Public instruction in the state of Para comprises : 

Primary instruction. 

Secondary instruction. 

Normal instruction. 

Technical and professional instruction. 

Primary instruction is given : 
In the elementary schools. 
In the primary school. 
In the Orphan (Amparo) Asylum. 

In the Institute of Mechanical Arts, and in those estab- 
lishments which through their nature and category 
distribute the so-denominated instruction. 
Secondary instruction is given at the Para Lyceum, in a 
course of sciences and letters exacted for the matriculation 
of the superior courses of the Republic. 

Normal instruction is furnished in the respective normal 
schools, for the preparation of primary teachers of both 
sexes. 

Professional instruction is given in the Institute of Me- 
chanical Arts in two courses : that of surveying and of 
book-keeping, annexed to the Para Lyceum ; in the Lyceum 
Benjamin Constant, which is a night school, maintained by a 
private association, aided by the state government. 

Each of these establishments, with the exception of the 
primary schools, is directed by a special regulation, in ac- 
cordance with the rules and principles of the general regu- 
lation. 

All the establishments named are subjected to the general 
directory of state instruction. 

75 



y6 The State of Para. 

The teaching is secular; that of the primary, gratuitous 
and not obligatory. 

Private instruction is entirely free and independent. Any 
person, foreign or native, can open an educational establish- 
ment, subject only to the following conditions : 

ist. A previous communication with the Director General 
of Public Instruction, declaring the names of the proprietor 
and director, denomination and locality of building. 

2d. To present within the space of eight days, whenever 
it may be required, a minute table of the membership and 
attendance of each pupil, giving nationality, age, class, and 
course. 

3d. To report annually, between the dates of the 10th 
and 20th of December, a table of the annual statistics 
of the school as specified in paragraph second. 

4th. To produce certificates of the sanitary condition of 
building and grounds, testified to by competent authority. 

Outside of this requirement, exacted by the necessities of 
instruction, and hygiene, the general directorship of public 
instruction has nothing to do with private schools not re- 
ceiving government aid. 

The non-fulfilment of the above conditions leads, for the 
first offence, to a fine of one hundred mil reis (ioo$ooo), or 
at present exchange about twenty-four dollars ($24.06) ; the 
second, to a fine of double the amount ; and in case of a final 
non-compliance with the law, the establishment is closed. 

ORGANIZATION OF PRIMARY INSTRUCTION. 

Primary instruction is divided into elementary and ad- 
vanced. 

Elementary instruction, given in the elementary schools, 
comprises : 

ist Concrete instruction of forms, colors, numbers, dimen- 
sions, time, sounds, quality of objects ; weights and measures, 
their use and application. 

2d. Practical geometry and rules for the measurement of 
areas and capacities. 



Public Instruction. 77 

3d. Reading and writing. 

4th. Practical teaching of the mother tongue, the concrete 
construction of phrases and orthography meriting attention 
above all. 

5th. Practical arithmetic, comprising the four fundamental 
processes, common and decimal fractions, the metric system, 
proportion, rule of three, interest, concrete problems reduced 
to a formula. 

6th. Geography of Brazil, and a general idea of universal 
geography. 

The course of the elementary schools lasts for at least 
three years. 

Advanced instruction is given in the primary schools. 

The courses of these schools are obligatory for six years, 
two being for the elementary course, two for the middle, 
and two for the superior or final course. 

Instruction in primary schools comprises : 
Elementary Course. 

1st. Concrete teaching of forms, colors, numbers, dimen- 
sions, time, sounds, qualities of objects ; measures, their use 
and application ; brief object lessons. 

2d. Reading and writing. 

3d. Practical teaching of the mother tongue. 

4th. Practical arithmetic, as far as long division ; easy 
problems always concretely reduced to a formula. 

5th. Moral culture, with moral comments upon the narra- 
tives in the reading-book and incidents of school life. 

Middle Course. 

1st. Reading and writing ; dictation. 

2d. Portuguese reading, practical grammar read, and in 
the first year largely explained and exemplified. In the 
second year the first theoretical rudiments of the language 
practically taught by intuitive method. Construction of 
phrases. 



yS The State of Par a. 

3d. Scientific presentation of objects ; the three natural 
kingdoms, their distinctions, and the general uses which man 
makes of the different elements which belong to each. 

4th. Practical arithmetic to the rule of three ; metrical 
system. Practical calculations and concrete problems ; 
practice of the metrical system. 

5th. Practical geometry. Practical construction on the 
blackboard of the plain figures. Practical measurement of 
areas and capacities. 

6th. Geography. Topographical study of the school and 
its situation, passing thence to the locality and afterwards 
to the municipality, indicating not alone physical conditions 
but dwelling also on the population, administration, pro- 
ductions, commerce, and industry. The first elements of 
map drawing, physical, political, and economic geography, 
of the state ; general ideas of the physical geography of the 
earth. 

7th. History of the country ; reading by pupils, with 
commentaries and explanation by teacher, afterwards re- 
peated by them. Biography of illustrious Brazilians of the 
colonial epoch. 

8th. Moral culture, moral observations and comments 
upon school life and facts of practical schooling. 

Superior Course. 

1st. Select readings and criticisms of the best Brazilian 
authors. Declamation, alternately prose and verse. 

2d. Exercises in composition and style ; theoretic-practi- 
cal study of Portuguese grammar ; parsing according to the 
methods of relations, discarding the old classifications. 

3d. Practical and theoretical arithmetic, as far as square 
and cubic root, excluding the logarithms. 

4th. Geometry ; study of solids, representation of the 
solids on the blackboard. 

5th. Object lessons, ideas of practical science ; reading 
and comments on selected works ; examination of specimens 
and objects appropriate to these lessons chosen by teacher 
or pupil. 



Public Instruction, 79 

6th. Universal geography ; general ideas of physical 
geography and political, especially of America. 

7th. Practical geography ; general study of physical geog- 
raphy, economic, and political of the country. Frontiers ; 
physical and economic studies of the principal fluvial basins. 
Study of each separate state. Drawings on the blackboard 
of charts, especially those of Brazil. 

8th. History of Brazil until the time of the downfall of 
the monarchy. 

9th. Civic culture ; reading and explanation of the Fed- 
eral Constitution, and that of the state. 

10th. Moral culture ; observations over facts of scholastic 
life, of practical life and of history. Exposition of man's 
chief duties to his country, to his fellow-citizens, and to 
humanity. Ideas and practical expositions of the social and 
human responsibility ; precepts of good breeding. 

In addition to these subjects, during the entire course, 
physical education is thus given : 

1st. Practical ideas of hygiene, respecting alimentation 
and clothing, the house, exercise, and distribution of time 
for labor and repose. 

2d. Neatness and order recommended and exacted. 

3d. Physical exercise in marching, leaping, and other cal- 
isthenic exercises made during recreation. 

4th. Games and plays in the open air. 

Twice a week, in the girls' schools, during those days 
designed for physical exercise in boys' schools, the last hour 
is employed in plain and ornamental needle-work ; preference 
being given to the cutting and making of men's and women's 
garments and to plain needle-work. 

The state schools have daily classes, from half-past seven 
in the morning until midday. 

Besides the general vacation (November 15th to January 
15th), there are no other holidays excepting Sundays and 
those appointed by the law of the state and the Union. 

In the primary schools, classes open on the 16th of Jan- 
uary and close on the 14th of November. 

The general directory of public instruction distributes 



80 The State of Par d. 

minute plans and pedagogical observations over each sub- 
ject of the programme, as well as over the distribution of 
time and labor. 

It is illegal for any teacher to alter said programmes, 
although he may be permitted to criticise them, offering such 
considerations as time and experience have taught him. 

There exist in the state 412 public primary schools, 266 
for boys and 146 for girls. In Belem, the capital, are 13 for 
boys and 32 for girls. Besides these, there are for adults 

5 primary night schools, maintained by various municipal 
administrations in the capital and the interior. 

Outside of these are in the capital 51 private establish- 
ments of primary and secondary instruction ; of these, 27 
being primary and 2 secondary for girls, and 24 primary and 

6 secondary for boys. 

The Amparo College, above mentioned, is a boarding- 
school designed for destitute orphan girls, who therein 
receive gratuitous primary instruction, domestic education, 
food, clothing, and, when they marry, a wedding outfit and 
a small dowry. 

There are under these conditions nearly 200 girls. 

This establishment has a special directorship, composed 
of philanthropic men, who provide a situation for these girls 
if they do not marry, when, having concluded their studies, 
they are obliged to leave the college. 

All expenses connected with this poor children's asylum 
are defrayed at the cost of the state treasury. 

SECONDARY AND PROFESSIONAL INSTRUCTION. 

The state department maintains at the capital a day- 
school for secondary instruction, called the Pard Lyceum, 
whose aim is the gratuitous offer of a fundamental intel- 
lectual culture, necessary, not alone for the matriculation of 
the superior courses, but for the fulfilment of social duties. 

Instruction at the Pard Lyceum comprises three courses, 
to wit : 

1st. Advanced course of letters and sciences, organized 
according to the plan of instruction of the National Gym- 



Public Instruction. 8 1 

nasium of the Federal . Capital (Decree of the Provisional 
Government, No. 981 of 8th Nov., 1890). 

2d. Course of surveying, with the studies indispensable to 
the exercise of this profession. 

3d. A commercial course, which more particularly instructs 
the pupil in book-keeping. 

The advanced course of letters and sciences, according to 
the plan of the National Gymnasium, is divided into a 
course of seven years ; that of surveying, in one of three 
years ; and the commercial, in one of two years. 

The first only is subject to the subsequent modifications 
adopted by the said gymnasium ; the last two are augmented 
or diminished at the will of the government, according to 
the needs of the respective instruction. 

The course of letters and sciences is principally a theo- 
retical one, practical only in the subjects which it exacts ; 
that of surveying is equally theoretical and practical ; the 
commercial, above all, is practical, aided by theories indis- 
pensable to its progress. 

General instruction at the Pard Lyceum comprises the 
following subjects : 



Sciences. 



1st. Arithmetic. 
2d. Algebra. 
3d. Geometry. 
4th. Trigonometry. 
5th. Mechanics. 
6th. Astronomy. 
7th. Physics. 
8th. Chemistry. 
9th. Meteorology, 
ioth. Mineralogy, 
nth. Geology. 
12th. Zoology. 
13th. Botany. 
14th. Biology. 
15th. Geography. 



82 The State of Par a. 

16th. Universal history. 

17th. Sociology and morals. 

1 8th. Legislation of lands. 

19th. Topography. 

20th. Book-keeping and commercial calculations. 

Letters and Arts, 

2 1st. Portuguese. 

22d. French. 

23d. English. 

24th. German. 

25th. Latin. 

26th. Greek. 

27th. Brazilian literature. 

28th. Drawing. 

29th. Music. 

30th. Gymnastics, military evolutions, and fencing. 

There are laboratories and cabinets, indispensable for 
practical experiments required in the three courses. 

Also in the Para Lyceum is a special library, in which will 
be found the most important compendiums, treatises, maps, 
reviews, for the consultation and higher studies of lecturer, 
professor, or student of the establishment. 

ADVANCED COURSE OF LETTERS AND SCIENCES. 

The advanced course of letters and sciences of the Pard 
Lyceum counts the following chairs : 

Portuguese. 

Latin. 

Greek. 

French. 

English. 

German. 

Elementary mathematics. 

General geometry, calculus, and descriptive geometry. 

Mechanics and astronomy. 



Public Instruction. 83 

Physics and chemistry. 

Geography. 

Meteorology, mineralogy, and geology. 

Biology. 

Sociology and morals. 

Universal history. 

History of Brazil. 

Brazilian literature. 

Drawing. 

Gymnastics, military evolutions, and fencing. 

Music. 

These branches form a seven-years' course. 
Surveying Course. 

Indispensable to this course are the following : 

Portuguese. 
French. 
Arithmetic. 

Algebra to equations of the second degree. 
Preliminary geometry and rectilinear trigonometry. 
General geography, cartography, and cosmography. 
Legislation of lands. 
Topography. 

Practice of instruments (sea-compass, transit, theodo- 
lite, tacheometer, levels, etc.). 
Lineal and topographic drawing. 

The above are comprised in a three-years' course. 

Commercial Course. 

The commercial course of the Pard Lyceum comprises 
the following subjects : 

1st. Portuguese. 

2d. French. 

3d. English. 

4th. German. 



84 The State of Par d. 

5 th. Arithmetic. 

6th. Commercial geography. 

7th. Mercantile book-keeping. 

8th. Commercial calculation. 

9th. Commercial practice. 

These subjects comprise a two-years' course. 

From the 2d to the 31st of January of each year is open 
in the Secretary's office, the register for the different courses 
and years of this establishment. 

No pupil can register his name without an application 
from his father, guardian, or some person fully authorized 
or legally responsible for same. 

Inscription in separate classes is permissible, subject, 
however, to the logical order of subjects, and to conformity 
with the above dispositions. 

With the special permission of the Director General, 
heard by the Lyceum, separate inscriptions can be prolonged 
until the 15th of March to those only who can prove the 
impossibility of registration in January. 

Such pupils, both for the regimen of the classes and ex- 
aminations, are of equal rank with those who receive the 
first lessons at the beginning of the year. 

The classes open on the 15th of January and close on the 
1 5th of October of each respective year. 

Daily classes and studies begin at eight o'clock in the 
morning, and are prolonged to the hour annually approved 
by the Board of Professors, and which is published in the 
official papers. 

In the advanced course of letters and sciences are three 
series of examinations, namely : the preparatory, the final, 
and the graduating ; and in the other two courses, only the 
first two series. 

1st Series. — Preparatory Examinations. 

These examinations comprehend the subjects studied 
during the first year, and which are to be subsequently 
continued. They commence at the close of classes, and 
consist only of oral examination which is publicly given. 



Public Instruction. 85 

2d Series. — Final Examinations. 

These examinations comprise the subjects concluded and 
are made to follow the conclusion of the preparatory, 
preceded by a previous three-days' notice. They consist of 
oral and written exercises and practice in the subjects 
exacted ; the first examination being private, under the 
inspection of the examiners, and the others public. 
The final examinations are of : 

I. Arithmetic and algebra, at the end of the first year. 
II. Portuguese, geography and cosmography, geometry 
and trigonometry, at the end of the second. 

III. French and Latin, calculus and descriptive geo- 

metry, at the end of the third. 

IV. Mechanics and astronomy, at the end of the fourth. 
V. English, German, and Greek, physics and chemistry 

and music, at the end of the fifth. 
VI. Biology, meteorology, mineralogy, geology, and 
drawing, at the end of the sixth. 
VII. Sociology and morals, universal history, history 
of Brazil, history of national literature, gym- 
nastics, military evolutions, and fencing, at the 
end of the seventh. 
To the final examinations of the Pard Lyceum outside 
candidates can present themselves, provided they ask, during 
the month of October, permission from the Director, declar- 
ing the course in which they desire to pass said examination. 

$d Series. — Graduating Examinations. 

These examinations are made at the end of the advanced 
course of letters and sciences, and are destined to verify if 
the pupil possesses the necessary intellectual culture. 

The time for these examinations is marked by the Director 
General. 

To them can only be admitted pupils of the Lyceum who 
have been approved in all final examinations. 

They consist of written and oral examinations in each of 
the following sections : 



$6 The State of Pard. 

ist. Living languages, especially the Portuguese, and 

national literature. 
2d. Dead languages. 
3d. Mathematics and astronomy. 
4th. Physical science and its application ; meteorology, 

mineralogy, and geology. 
5 th. Biology, zoology, and botany. 
6th. Sociology and morals, outlines of national law and 

political economy. 
7th. Geography, universal history, especially of Brazil. 

Besides these, there is also a practical examination of the 
studies of sections 4th, 5th, and 7th. 

To these examinations may be admitted any candidate 
outside of the establishment, who may wish to profit by the 
guaranties and privileges conceded to this establishment 
under the condition of : 

(a) Petition to the Director General. 

(&) Attached to this petition a certificate from a pro- 
fessor of acknowledged competence, or from a 
director of a private college, proving the candi- 
date's qualifications in the subjects of the required 
sections. 

On the candidate who obtains in the graduating examina- 
tions of the Pard Lyceum two thirds of full approvals, is 
conferred the degree of Bachelor of Letters and Sciences. 

The student approved in all the subjects of the surveying 
course receives a Surveyor s Diploma, conferred by the 
Para Lyceum, with which he can exercise this profession in 
all the states, and use publicly the title of surveyor. 

The Para Lyceum also confers a Certificate of qualification 
on the student fully approved of in the subjects of the last 
year of the commercial course. 

The government besides subsidizes two establishments of 
the secondary class in the two cities in the interior of the 
state, viz., in Santarem, on the right bank of the Tapajos 
River, and in Cameta, on the left bank of the Tocantins 
River. This last establishment is not yet in operation ; the 



Public Instruction. 87 

first, however, has been in existence for nearly two years 
and comprises the following scholastic programme : 

Portuguese. 

French. 

English. 

Latin. 

Arithmetic. 

Algebra. 

Geometry. 

Trigonometry. 

General geography and cosmography. 

Universal history. 

Chorography and history of Brazil. 

Drawing and music. 

The second establishment which is in process of installa- 
tion at Cam eta will have the same programme. 

NORMAL SCHOOL. 

Under the form of a day school the government maintains 
at the capital of the state a normal school, which has for its 
aim the preparation of professors of both sexes for the 
teaching of the primary course. 

The normal course comprises the following subjects all 
obligatory : 

The national language and literature ; a critical study 
of its standard works and expressive reading and 
comment on the text. 

French. 

Elementary mathematics, comprising arithmetic, ele- 
mentary algebra, and preliminary geometry. 

General geography, chorography of Brazil, cartog- 
raphy, and cosmography. 

Universal history, especially that of Brazil, and par- 
ticularly of Para. 

General pedagogy, methodology, and school hygiene. 

Physics and chemistry. 

Natural history : mineralogy, botany, and zoology. 



88 The State of Para. 

Moral and civic instruction. 

Outlines of law and political economy ; study of the 

Constitution of the Union and of the state. 
Caligraphy. 
Drawing. 
Music. 

Needle-work for girls. 
Gymnastics. 
All these subjects comprise a four-years' course. 
The course of national language and literature has espe- 
cially for its object the inspiration of the sentiment for 
vernacular purity ; and, through a critical study of the best 
works on the literature of our language, the taste for a good 
style. 

History particularly is directed towards civic education. 
The teaching of sciences, always explained by observation 
and experiment, is above all conducted as a fortifying dis- 
cipline and educator of the understanding, familiarizing it 
practically with the best methods of investigation and 
scientific demonstration. 

Instruction in drawing has for its aim the education of 
the senses, the faculty of observation, and an artistic taste, 
affording to the student at the same time the usual and 
ready means of experience and concentration of thought. 

Instruction in geography employs the utmost care in 
cartographical exercises, be they made on paper or on the 
blackboard. 

Moral instruction, reduced to the minimum of theory, is 
essentially practical and pedagogical. Through its means 
the right cultivation of the infant pupil's mind is above all 
sought and maintained. 

Cabinets and laboratories are created indispensable to the 
practice of natural and physical sciences. 

There are also two primary-model schools, one for each 
sex, for practice of pupil-teachers in the art of teaching. 

Also a library, gradually and progressively organized, 
exists, where students and professors may consult in their 
studies the more important works, maps, reviews, etc. 



Public Instruction, 89 

Normal teaching is gratuitous and secular. 

From the 2d to the 31st of January, of each year, is open 
at the secretary's office the register for each course and each 
year. 

With the permission of the Director General, heard by the 
director of the establishment, registership can be prolonged 
until the 15th of March, it having been proven impossible 
in January. 

The classes open the 15th of January and close the 31st 
of October of each year. 

Daily labors commence at eight o'clock punctually in 
the morning and are prolonged to the hour approved by the 
Board of professors. 

Examinations commence on the third day after the close 
of the classes. 

They consist of oral and written examinations, and 
practical on those subjects that exact it. 

TECHNICAL TEACHING. 

Also at the expense of government is established a free 
boarding-school for minors, under military conditions, where 
gratuitous instruction in mechanical arts is given. 

This establishment is called The Pard Institute of Me- 
chanical Arts, and contains 130 pupils. 
There are five work-shops, viz. : 
That of— 

The joiner and turner. 
The blacksmith and locksmith. 
The tailor. 
The tinsmith. 

The shoemaker, tanner and currier. 
When the pupil's education is finished, he serves for two 
years in the state militia, obtaining afterwards his discharge 
or promotion. 

The government subsidizes one periodical — The Review of 
Teaching and Education, — which is published monthly in the 
capital. 



PART IV. 

PUBLIC REVENUES AND COMMERCE. 



91 



STATE EXCHEQUER. 

ADMINISTRATION. 

The administration of the state exchequer, according to 
the terms of the Constitution, belongs to the governor, and 
is exercised through means of the Public Treasury of State, 
which acts as a tribunal or administratively. 

In the first case, this is represented by the Board of the 
Treasury, composed of the Inspector, the Accountant, and 
the Attorney-Solicitor of this department, and in this 
manner : by directing and inspecting the state receipts and 
expenditures, examining collection of taxes, distribution and 
accounting for the public revenue, and deciding as to the 
justice of decisions of the fiscal department. 

Administratively the Inspector represents the Treasury ; 
decides administrative questions; indicates improvements 
and reforms in the collection of taxes or tributary system ; 
executes the financial legislation decreed by Congress and 
sanctioned by the governor; promotes in every possible 
manner the financial interests of the state commonwealth. 

It is the centre of the administration of Exchequer, and 
subordinate to it : in legal administration, the Collecting 
Department of the public income of the state, and those 
public departments which receive state contributions or in- 
come, and the collectorships, which, in the interior, are 
special agencies to facilitate the collection of taxes. 

PUBLIC REVENUES AND EXPENDITURES. 

The public receipts comprise : 

The municipal income. 
The state income. 
The first is decreed by the municipal councils, and is col- 

93 



94 The State of Par d. 

lected by their agents, attorneys, or by permission of the 
governor by the Collecting Department, and is designed for 
municipal expenses. 

The second, voted by Congress and with the sanction of 
the governor, is collected at the Collecting Department, 
collectorships, and also different public stations. 

The state income in the financial term of 1838 to 1839, 
the first directed by a legal budget, after the bloody politi- 
cal revolution of the Cabanagem, amounted to * 230:799$ 5 34, 
and the expense 133:7831489, increased, in 185 1, before the 
separation of the territory of the old district of Rio Negro, 
which afterwards passed into the province of Amazon, to 
273:3291980 and the expense to 244:42 1$037- 

Then, not alone on account of this separation, but also on 
account of the dismemberment of the territory which con- 
stituted the term of Turyassu, the income rose, in 1852, to 
295:20i$8i9, increasing from then till now, with far greater 
development, certainly owing to the innumerable benefits, 
brought about by steam navigation, begun on the Amazon, 
and its branches, and to-day extended to nearly all navi- 
gable rivers. 

The first financial periods after the commencement of 
steam navigation were severe trials to Para, scourged by 
cholera and subsequent depression in all its branches of 
commerce and industry; yet, withal, public income con- 
tinued to increase, reaching in 1861 to the receipt of 579:- 
8071891, the expense being 567:2881058, notwithstanding 
the slight commercial intercourse between Para and the 
United States of America, which, at that date, was the prin- 
cipal consuming market of our rubber. 

It is worthy to note the development attained by the 
Para state income. 

The balance sheets show the following : 

In 1861 579'807$89i 

" 1871 . . . . . 1,642:3231731 

" 1881 2,477:554553 

" 1891 3,954:9i3$669 

* i$ooo (one thousand reis) equals about 50 cents, at par rate. 



Public Revenues and Commerce. 95 

not including in this last year the income derived from 
taxes, belonging until July to the general government, and 
which passed from the 6th to the 12th of this month to con- 
stitute the state income, in accordance with the new organi- 
zation of the country. 

The receipts and expenditures in the last decade were : 



In 1881-1882 


2,913:2611183 


3,480:308^053 


1882-1883 


3,107:6831464 


2,572:oo5$56 4 


2d half-year 1883 


1,974:8501692 


1,254:5991847 


1884 


2,299: i87$8o6 


2,929:637$85i 


1885 


2,807:929^820 


2, 964:0 1 4$2 2 2 


1886 


3,i8i:247$599 


3,l87:909$249 


1887 estimated 


I 3,960:6301000 


3,700:52I$l69 


1888 


3,205:2301494 


3,622:202$5i6 


1889 


2,806:0741634 


3,089:0941701 


1890 


3, 140: 1 62$ 144 


3,313:0831752 


and in 1891 


5,938:i54$8i8 


5,772:044$994 



including in the receipts the sum of 1,983:241^149, collected 
from the new state taxes ; and in the expenditure that of 
I,i72:633$747, expended upon new obligations contracted 
by the state, according to terms of the Federal Constitution ; 
it being worthy of note that the state delivered to the mu- 
nicipal council of Belem the income derived from house- 
taxes, which in 1891 reached the amount of 298:8301955. 

For the collection of such an important sum, the State 
Collecting Office contributed : 

In 1861 449:1151425 

" 1871 i,236:i35$22o 

" 1 88 1 2,046:073^304 

"1891 5,529:1 108424 

The legislation concerning the fiscal laws has been all 
reorganized, and the government has been discriminating 
between the incomes and obligations of the state and of the 
municipalities ; self-governed in the form of the Para 
Constitution. 



g6 The State of Par d. 

The Decrees Nos. 415 of the 26th and 418 of the 28th of 
October, 1 891, which promulgated new regulations and new 
taxes for the collection of export duties and industries and 
professions, modified sensibly the fiscal process and dimin- 
ished duties, which will little by little disappear, in conform- 
ity with the development of other incomes. 

It is the intention of government to substitute as quickly 
as possible export duties by land-taxes ; such an important 
service, difficult and delayed, must be very carefully studied 
and prepared, in order to be able to commence the organiza- 
tion of cadastral plans — base for the imposition of this tax, 

PUBLIC DEBT. 

In the day of the proclamation of the Republic in Pard, 
the state of public debt was the following : 

The fluctuating debt amounted to i,432:463$563 
The consolidated debt, consisting 

of bonds at interest of 8 % • i,i64:200$ooo 

Of bonds at interest of 6 % . . 2,2i5:400$ooo 



4,812:0631563 

The last President but one of Para in his report, presented 
the 1 8th of September, 1889, to the Provincial Assembly, 
referred to the deplorable financial conditions of the prov- 
ince; conditions which he attributed to the imprudence 
which presided over the organization of the budget, whose 
deficit he calculated to be over two thousand contos of reis, 
and the heavy obligations contracted in one continuous series 
of onerous contracts. 

" The impossibility of satisfying," said he, " the obliga- 
tions which these contracts throw upon the Province, brings 
the consequent depreciation of its bonds, provoked by the 
just clamors of creditors, who demand punctuality in their 
payments." 

To do entire justice to this citizen, we should say that he 
tried in vain to arrange, under acceptable conditions, a loan 
for the consolidation and conversion of the debt. 



Public Revenues and Commerce. 97 

Actually the state has no fluctuating debt, and the condi- 
tion of public edifices almost ruined, has considerably im- 
proved. 

An edifice appropriated to the official press has been 
constructed, also a large lunatic asylum, and large loans to 
different municipalities have been made ; titles of public 
debt enjoy entire credit, because of the guaranty they 
offer and the punctuality of their payment of interest. 

The actual consolidated debt amounts to 4,528:8oo$ooo, 
distributed as follows : 

Government bonds of 5 % ■ • i07:400$ooo 
" 6% . . 772:400$ooo 
Balance of loan of 6,500 contos of 

reis, raised in 1890 from the 

Bank Lavoura e Commercio, 

payable in thirty years . . 3,649:ooo$ooo 



4,528:8oo$ooo 



On the 2d of January, 1893, the balance sheet at the 
Treasury showed in hand the sum of ... . 5,480:576- 
$813, belonging: 

To the Treasury .... 3,6o7:36o$669 
Several deposits .... 1, 873:2 i6$i44 

The amount paid in the State Collecting Office during 
1892 rose to 7,829:93 1 $664, or more than three thousand 
contos of reis in excess of the calculation noted by Congress, 
if to the first-mentioned sum be added the amount collected 
by other fiscal stations. 

The export duties, which had been calculated at 
3,801 :653$ooo, brought in 6,676:305^281, or an excess 
of 2,874:652$28i ; those for landing of goods, an excess 
of io:i42$488 ; and those on stamps nearly two hundred 
contos of reis. 

A prudent and careful calculation of the receipts during 
the financial year, even counting on a heavy decline in the 
prices of our principal products, estimates the revenue of 



98 The State of Para. 

the state at 7,153:2781000, without including the existing 
balance. 

All tends to the belief that, shortly, the debt of the state 
will be completely paid. 



COMMERCE. 

THE state of Para, through its geographical position, 
through its considerable number of navigable rivers — navi- 
gable to incalculable distances, — constitutes ways of easily 
opened communications beween the capital and its interior, 
as well as the bordering states and republics. It is thus the 
necessary emporium of the most important commerce of 
North Brazil. 

Part of the interior of the states of Maranham and Goyaz, 
of the republics of Peru, Bolivia, and Venezuela, send their 
products to be sold and obtain their supplies in the com- 
mercial exchange of Para. 

Not of long date are the progress and development of 
Para commerce. A sort of feudal spirit of monopoly exer- 
cised by the Jesuits restricted for a long time this commerce, 
which commenced weak and unprotected. 

At the end of the last century neither the imports nor 
exports exceeded in importance 300 contos of reis 1 ; only 
after the government of Conde dos Arcos did they double 
in value. 

From 1806 to 18 19 there passed over the commercial 
exchange of Belem a great crisis, which admitted of no 
further improvement. In 1820, seven ships and fifty-three 
vessels of different tonnage brought to Para French, Eng- 
lish, Portuguese, and African goods, initiating a more pros- 
perous era, if, unfortunately, the internal commotions and 
political agitations had not almost extinguished the relations 
of commercial movement. 

Only from the year 1836 forward did it commence to 
revive and develop, as the following tables will show : 

1 About $150,000 at par rate. 



Public Revenues and Commerce. 



99 



NAVIGATION STATISTICS. 
1836— 1837 

From foreign ports 66 ships with 

" national " 34 

100 

1837— 1838 

From foreign ports 54 ships with 

" national " 24 

78 

1838— 1839 
From foreign ports 61 ships with 



national 



22 



83 



u 11 



9,309 tons. 
4,534 " 



13,843 



9,269 tons. 
4,912 " 



14,181 



9,336 tons. 
2,679 " 



12,015 



1839 — J 840 

From foreign ports 65 ships with 

" national " 16 



81 



9,639 tons. 
1,613 " 



11,252 



1840 — 1 841 
From foreign ports 74 ships with 



national 



14 
88 



n a 



12,040 tons. 

i,543 " 



13,583 



1850— 1851 
From foreign ports 84 ships with 

1861 
From foreign ports 



and national 



14,701 tons. 



116 ships with 72,406 tons. 



IOO 



The State of Para. 
1871 



From foreign ports 

and national 260 



ships with 140,472 tons. 



1881 
idem idem 311 ships with 225,484 tons. 



1891 
idem idem 410 ships with 472,357 tons. 



IMPORTATION. 



1836— 1837 



Foreign, in the value of . 
National " " " " . 



689:4971400 
1,130:6051333 

i,82o:io2$733 



1837— 1838 



Foreign, in the value of . 
National 



tt u a << 



578:584$440 
709:006$590 

I,287:59I$030 



I838— 1839 



Foreign, in the value of . 
National " " " " . 



852:6571625 

485:587$044 

1,338:2441669 



1839— 1840 



Foreign, in the value of 
National " " " " 



899:5771223 
659:764488 

i>559:338$7H 



Public Revenues and Commerce. 101 

1850— 1851 
Total value of importation . . . 2,291 195 3^995 

1861 
idem idem idem .... 5,660: \^j%^j\ 

1871 
idem idem idem .... 1 1,796:407143 1 

1881 
idem idem idem .... 16,907:911 $406 

1891 
idem idem idem .... 21,235:7371696 

Proceeding from the bordering republics we received : 

1890 

From Peru . 1,163,909 kilos of rubber in 

the value of . 2, 13 1:9811546 
From Bolivia . 432,548 kilos of rubber in 

the value of . i,ii9:666$ooo 
From Venezuela 7,976 kilos of rubber in 

the value of . 19:4611150 

1,604,433 3,271:1081696 

1 891 

From Peru . 701,585 kilos of rubber in 

the value of . 2,185:7351690 
From Bolivia . 502,481 kilos of rubber in 

the value of . 1, 564:725^834 
From Venezuela 3,775 kilos of rubber in 

the value of . n:755$35o 

3,762:2 16$874 



102 



The State of Par d. 



EXPORTATION. 
1837— 1838 

Total value of exportation 



idem idem idem 



idem idem idem 



idem idem idem 



idem idem idem 



idem idem idem 



idem idem idem 



idem idem idem 



838—1839 



1839 — l8 4° 



1850— 1851 



i860— 1861 



1871 



1881 



1891 



82i:622$94i 

848:377$869 

1,236:8571039 

1,986:5421173 

3,567:o58$775 

9,348:2951890 

i5,7oi:o72$7oo 

27,755:6671004 



In comparison with these figures it is evident that the 
foreign commerce increased in these last twenty years at 
the rate of 296 per cent, or the mean annual progress 
of 14.8 per cent. ; and this is surprising considering that 
only the United States of America has presented such nota- 
ble progress ; in France it does not reach 10.2 per cent. 

Also to be noted is the constant excess in the value of 
exportation over importation, presenting in the last year a 
balance of 6,5i9:929$3o8. 

According to information given the government, the total 
value of the state production last year reached much over 
45,000 contos; representing a poll-tax of 90$ooo, estimating 
the population of Para at 600,000 inhabitants. 

As principal products figure : 



Public Revenues and Commerce. 



103 



RUBBER. 

This product alone represents nearly two thirds of the 
total value of production, contributing to the state and 
municipal incomes nearly 25 per cent, of their value, with 
neither loss nor impoverishment to the producer. 

Exported until 1840 almost exclusively in the form of 
shoes, the best quality obtained then, the average price of 
539 reis a kilogramme. 

In 1850 there were exported only 138,873 pairs, but the 
quantity of smoked rubber augmented, raising the exporta- 
tion to 1,351,678 kilogrammes. 

From 1854 to 1855 exportation of rubber in shoes was 
entirely discontinued, and the preparation of smoked rubber 
continued to increase, raising its production in 1861 to 
1,872,235 kilogrammes, at the value of 2,369:1598791. 

In conformity to the qualities which to-day are quoted in 
the market, its exportation in 1871 was of: 

Fine rubber, 2,439,620 kls. in the value of 4,912:81 I$6l4 
Middle fine " 258,391 " " " 473:5288375 

Sernamby " 1,153,011 " " " 1,494:9631688 

and in the last decade : 







Fine I 


Rubber. 




1881 


3,184,811 


2$423 


to 38183 


8,262:6868000 


1882 


3,202,734^ 


38050 


" 4$456 


11,604:1888399 


1883 


3,343>905i 


3$275 


" 4$o 33 


12,218:0858160 


1884 


3,065, 842 \ 


i$75o 


" 3$4QO 


6,75 5:9188260 


1885 


3,793,023 


2$335 


" 2$775 


9,272:6941920 


1886 


3,844,983 


2$ 4 25 


" 3$ 1 00 


10,313:1361840 


1887 


3,935,558 


2$375 


" 2$ 99 6 


10,043:9828060 


1888 


4,065,862 


i$945 


" 2$625 


8,660:942^040 


1889 


4,136,562 


1 $700 


" 2$025 


7,997:3i7$93i 


1890 


3,802,558 


2$o84 


" 38425 


10,423:2348459 


1891 


3,948,146 


28685 


" 48660 


13,987:0498634 



104 




The State c 


f Para. 








Middle Fine Rubber. 




i88i 


393.743 


2$223 to 2$ 9 75 


9 6 7^377$66o 


1882 


43 6 > i9 I i 


2^850 ' 


' 4$256 


1,474:524583 


1883 


467,324 


3S075 ' 


' 3$8 3 3 


1,639:704540 


1884 


486,544 


i$55o ' 


' 3$200 


1,064:174320 


1885 


684,188^ 


2$i75 ' 


' 2$575 


i,546:i33$ 9 8o 


1886 


662,635 


2$225 « 


' 2$900 


1,639:9621780 


1887 


684,573i 


2$i75 < 


1 2$y 9 6 


1, 623:847$ 1 00 


1888 


1,023,314 


4745 ' 


' 2$ 4 25 


2,o33:728$32o 


1889 


1,118,777 


1 $500 ' 


' 4825 


1,927: i4 9 $545 


1890 


985,619 


1 $884 ' 


1 3$22 5 


2,4 9 2:345$oi7 


1891 


966,929 


2$ 4 85 ' 
Sernamby . 


' 4$4^o 
Rubber. 


3,287:71 8$025 


1881 


1,852,959 


4175 to 2$5oo 


2,7O9:839$040 


1882 


2,140,576^ 


4750 ' 


1 2$65o 


4,722: 99 3$736 


1883 


1,903, 185J 


4675 ' 


' 2fci8 


4,o6o:574$200 


1884 


1,809,734 


850 ' 


1 4833 


2,397:2i2$26o 


1885 


2,330,442 


4225 ' 


4900 


3,7i8:7i8$ioo 


1886 


2,479,048^ 


4525 ' 


' 2$200 


4,499:474020 


1887 


2,346,642^- 


4475 ' 


' 2^096 


4,0347621240 


1888 


2,357,840 


4ooo ' 


1 4725 


3,o76:704$38o 


1889 


2,864,445 


900 ' 


1 4i5o 


3,oi4:645$i74 


1890 


2,767,654 


1 $242 ' 


1 2$ 4 8 3 


4,990: i93$5 17 


1 891 


2,714,676 


i$6oo ' 

CACA 


1 3$59i 

0. 


6,198:874613 



Well informed persons write that the cacao crops on the 
banks of the Amazon had formerly become so abundant 
that they could not be totally transported in the sailing 
vessels which descended the river; with great loss they re- 
mained on shore and were left to be exported in the follow- 
ing year. There were places so rich in this product that the 
government reserved the value of the crops for defraying 
the expenses of military uniforms. 

If, to-day, this prodigious number of cacao-trees does not 



Public Revenues and Commerce. 



105 



exist, it is certain the use of cacao has been greatly developed, 
and prices have increased so greatly as to compensate largely 
for the work and expenses of its crops. 

It can be cultivated throughout the State, and on the 
margins of the rivers Amazon and Tocantins, where the 
cacao-trees are most abundant. Its planting is easy ; the 
cacao-tree bears its first fruit three years after, and it pro- 
duces fruit during more than fifty or sixty years, it being 
sufficient to clean the trees, in which case they give two 
regular crops ; the larger crop being between the months of 
May and July. 

The exportation of cacao in the course of 1780 to 1789, 
was 9,102,813 kilos, and in 1790 to 1800, 11,911,960 kilos. 

In 185 1, 2,963,152 kilos were exported at the value of 
243:4718212; in 1861 the exportation rose to 3,480,401 kilos 
at the value of 1,475:7991029; in 1871,4,191,222 kilos at 
the value of 1,523:2088700. 

In the last ten years from 1881 to 1891 it was the 
following : 



Cacao. 



1881 


5,104,902 


525 


to 590 


2,740:459^140 


1882 


5,900,727 


510 


" 580 


3,3 1 578o$920 


1883 


4,962,850 


510 


700 


3,255:23i$57o 


1884 


4,857,119 


515 


" 600 


2,776:9858980 


1885 


3,414,336 


570 


" 880 


2,491 :6oo$88o 


1886 


1,812,054$ 


600 


840 


1,324:7298480 


1887 


3,840,048 


555 


600 


2,250:9278300 


1888 


6,906,730 


365 


" 550 


2,623:4188480 


1889 


3741,937 


34o 


390 


1,406:4638340 


1890 


2,733,186 


35i 


" 485 


1,216:8638020 


1891 


4,991,620 


445 


850 


2,919:4678630 



In detail can be better appreciated the importance of the 
commerce of cacao by the following table, which presents, 
in tons of 1,000 kilogrammes, all the exportations made by 
the Exchange of Belem in the last five years : 



io6 



The State of Para. 





1887 


1888 


1889 


1890 


1891 




Entr. 


Export 


Entr. 


Export 


Entr. 


Export 


Entr. 


Export 


Entr. 


Export 


January 

February 

March 

April 

May 

June 

July 

August 

September. .. 

October 

November. . . 
December . . . 


205 

407 

382 

5i6 

885 

908 

662 

181 

81 

17 

15 

36 


329 
209 

317 

545 
625 

854 
427 
451 
661 

31 
9 

17 


257 

427 

428 

410 

880 

2,000 

1,750 

9 6 3 

273 

77 

10 

19 


8 

404 

276 

221 

851 

1,190 

1,881 

i,752 

520 

72 

290 

9 


15 

30 

47 

87 

103 

280 

1,075 

1,405 

825 

454 

131 

29 


4 
11 
32 
64 
21 
40 
755 
1,244 

785 

945 

521 

46 


8 

24 

39 

147 

370 

1,150 

1,010 

447 
144 

27 
25 
40 


12 

49 

25 

60 

817 

424 

926 

390 

645 

19 

6 ! 
1 


150 
340 
470 
450 
957 
1,050 
1,800 
750 
400 

35 
10 
11 


21 

308 

388 

315 

247 

1,264 

1,258 

1,068 

508 

401 

626 

44 



BRAZIL NUTS. 

A product formerly known in the consuming markets 
under the name of Maranham nuts is produced in this state 
and along the Amazon, where its crop is within the reach 
of all who wish to procure them. In our forests are num- 
berless Brazil-nut trees ; the crop is almost wholly gathered 
in the proximity of the margins of the rivers ; and its expor- 
tation which, principally in the years 1857 to 1862, was made 
in the husk and by the alqueires, 1 is made to-day exclusively 
without the husks and by weight. 

Its price has constantly varied; from 1836 to 185 1 it 
always maintained the price of 2$ooo to 6$ooo per 50 kilo- 
grammes ; it has, however, augmented, and this year (1892) 
it rose to the advanced price of 27^950 per hectolitre, or 559 
per kilo. 

According to official documents, the average annual ex- 
portation of nut in the period of 1836 to 1850 was 1,550,100 
kilos, at the value of 34:2691760; in 185 1, 3,337,320 kilos 
were exported, at the value of 87:874$ioo ; in 1861, the 
year in which the exportation in husks advanced the most 
2,301,320 kilos and 35,183 husks, at the value of 238:728- 

1 A Portuguese dry measure. 



Public Revenues and Commerce. 



107 



$720; it rose in 1871 to 2,694,924 kilos at the value of 
296:-86i$3<X), and the exportation during the last ten years 
was the following : 



Nuts. 



1881 


71,114 


4$2 9 5 


to 


8$6oo 


392:0231040 


1882 


51,290$ 


5$i5o 


a 


9$ooo 


39i:824$740 


1883 


29,71 5i 


8$5oo 


a 


i5$ooo 


30i:855$440 


1884 


99,520 


4$35o 


<< 


1 5 $000 


653-3 io$900 


1885 


40,503 


7$ooo 


a 


i2$8oo 


385:5I3$720 


1886 


17,119 


7$ooo 


n 


i 4 $65o 


172:9101360 


1887 


63,243 


5$8o4 


<< 


i5$i5o 


6oi:i88$8oo 


1888 


93,194 


4$35o 


a 


9$6oo 


630:8 1 7$ 1 80 


1889 


30,794j 


3$95o 


a 


7$400 


174:5681380 


1890 


4,221 


8$ooo 


tt 


i3$ooo 


46:034258 


1891 


109,700 


5$ooo 


a 


i5$766 


868:279$ 9 35 






TOBACCO 







Cultivated more or less throughout the state, but princi- 
pally in the district of S. Miguel do Guama, Ourem, Irituia, 
Acara, and Bragan5a, its production scarcely suffices for the 
consumption of the interior of the state and Amazon ; its 
exportation is very small. 

Its production is difficult to be valued, because statistics 
are given only concerning that which comes to the market 
of the capital, where entered : 



In 1871 


116,908 kilos at the value of 


228:453S350 


" 1881 


257,479 " 


527:834950 


" 1891 


404,687 " 


870:0771050 



MANDIOCA FLOUR (FARINHA). 

Constituting the principal food of all the population, the 
culture of mandioca is most developed, the annual produc- 
tion of farinha being raised to 20 millions of kilogrammes ; 
constituting an important article of exportation for the 



io8 



The State of Para. 



Amazon, which is entirely supplied with this article by 
Para. 

Its price, according to its quality, varies from 3 to 8$000 ; 
it having this year been sold at the fabulous price of i8$00O 
per alqueire or 28 litres. 

To the port of the capital came : 

In 1 88 1 . . . 5,091,348 alqueires 

"1890 . . . 11,051,748 

" 1891 . . • 7,385,768 



NATIVE RUM. 

The production of native rum in Para, notwithstanding the 
advantage offered by nature, and the fertility of lands for the 
cultivation of sugar-cane, is not sufficient for home consump- 
tion, and from Pernambuco, in 1891, 1,466,856 litres were 
imported. 

To the port of the capital came : 



In 1861 .... 


701,484 litres 


" 1871 .... 


436,445 " 


" 1881 .... 


1,751,296 " 


and in the last five years : 




1887 


1,006, 160 litres 


1888 .... 


1,974,375 " 


1889 .... 


4,205,380 " 


1890 .... 


2,071,964 " 


1891 .... 


1,904,778 " 



BANKING INSTITUTIONS. 
Established in the State. 

The Commercial Bank of Para. — This is the oldest estab- 
lishment of credit founded in the state. 

By act of November 11, 1846, the general government 
authorized the President of the province to inform him if 
the establishment of a bank was possible, and useful. 

In 1852 Counsellor Fausto Augusto de Aguiar confided in 
the diligence and activity of Messrs. Francisco Gaudencio 



Public Revenues and Commerce. 109 

da Costa, Henrique de LaRocque and Vicente Ruiz to obtain 
the subscription of the capital necessary and the making of 
the laws ; only, however, on the 1st of July, 1869, was the 
bank authorized, by Decree No. 434 of the 10th of March of 
this year to commence its operations, its capital being raised 
to the amount of 1,000 contos of reis. 1 

Its operations, according to its statutes, are circumscribed 
to discounts, advances, exchange, and commissions on buying 
and selling bonds and stocks. 

In 1883 its capital was increased to I ,ooo:000$ooo, divided 
into 20,000 shares, belonging to 534 shareholders. 

The bank operates in its own edifice, and enjoys no favor 
whatever from the government. It has passed through 
several fluctuations or crises of the market without having 
experienced any notable shock. 

Its reserve fund has enlarged each six months, with which 
the bank meets its losses ; dividends have always been paid 
to its shareholders, those of the last five years being : 

In 1887, Ist h alf Y ear &% 2d half year 7 % 

" 1888, " " " 6% " " " %% 

" 1889, " " " $% " " " 4% 

" 1890, " " " 4% " " u 4% 

" 1891, " " " 4% « " " s% 

The Para Bank. — This was organized the 9th of April, 
1883, and commenced its operations the 5th of July of the 
same year, with capital of i,ooo:ooo$ooo (one thousand contos 
of reis), which in 1886 was increased to 2,ooo:ooo$ooo, and 
lately to 3,ooo:ooo$ooo, all realized in shares of ioo$ooo, 
belonging to 506 shareholders. 

This bank operates in its own edifice, for which it was 
expressly constructed in 1888. This building figures in the 
active balance-sheet at 240 contos of reis, a less sum than it 
cost, and to-day much less than it would cost ; the ground 
floor is occupied by two commercial establishments, which 
bring in annually 7:200$ooo. 

The bank operates in discount of notes, opening of credit 

1 About $500,000, at par rate. 



no The State of Para. 

in accounts current on guaranties of commercial and gov- 
ernment securities, loans on mortgages of city landed estate, 
buying and selling of companies' shares, of miscellaneous 
societies, commissions, buying and selling of exchange, col- 
lection of drafts and bills of exchange for the account of 
third parties, opening letters of credit at home and abroad. 

During the last five years the bank distributed 35 % of divi- 
dends, or 7 %, each year ; and its reserve fund, consisting of 5 % 
of net profits, is gy.yg6$440. 

The bank owes no favor to the government. 

It never had deficits. 

Its correspondents, against whom it draws, are : 

Parrs Banking Company and The Alliance Bank, Limited, 
in London. 

Credit Lyonnais, in Paris, and its branches and agencies in 
all the cities of France, Germany, Austria, Belgium, Bul- 
garia, Denmark, Egypt, Spain, Greece, Holland, Italy, Nor- 
way, Roumania, Russia, Servia, Switzerland, Sweden, 
Turkey, and Tunis. 

The Lisbon and Azorez Bank, in Lisbon. 

Minho Bank, its branches and agencies, in Oporto, in 
Braga, and the principal cities and towns of Portugal. 

G. Amsinck & Co., New York. 

Commercial Bank of Rio de Janeiro. 

South American Bank, in Rio de Janeiro. 

Santos & Brothers, and Maia Sobrinho & Co., in Mara- 
nham. 

5. R. Cunha & Co., in Ceara. 

Araujo Rosas & Co., in Manaos. 

Belem of Pard Bank. — Urged by the necessities of the 
market, Messrs. Joaquim Rodrigues Roxo, Jose Marques 
Braga, Paul Mouraille, Manoel Joaquim Machado de Freitas, 
and the Baron of Gondoriz organized this bank, observing 
the regulations of the law No. 3150 of November 4, 1882, 
and organizing the same, June 8, 1886, beginning its opera- 
tions September 9th of the same year. 

The capital of the bank is 1 ,ooo:ooo$ooo, divided into 
10,000 shares payable to the bearer. 

Organized exclusively for the discounts of bills and other 



Public Revenues and Commerce. 1 1 1 

operations in this market, it was not long before they saw 
the convenience of extending the sphere of its transactions, 
commencing exchange operations. 

Its shares being issued to the bearer, it is necessary to 
deposit them in the bank three days before the meeting of 
the general assembly of the shareholders ; to have a quo- 
rum, it is sufficient that one fourth of its capital be repre- 
sented. 

Its average dividends since the incorporation have been 
7i % yearly, or 3.75 % each half year. 

Its reserve fund is 20:387$I98, and the bank has made 
worthy progress. 

To this bank the government concedes no favor. 

Bank of Issue of the North. — This bank was installed on 
the 9th of August, 1890, with the capital of 20,000 :ooo$ooo, 
of which io,ooo:ooo$ooo is subscribed and 3,ooo:ooo$ooo 
realized. Besides the power that it has of issuing notes 
to the bearer and at sight, it attends to all banking and 
exchange operations and makes issue of bonds secured by 
mortgage. 
Its reconstituting fund is ... . 23:966$720 



20:66 1 $480 

22i:oo7$88o 

48:708$! 80 

but it is guaranteed 



" reserve " " 

" integralizing " " 
" guaranty " " 

Its circulating issue is 1 ,ooo:ooo$ooo 
by an equal amount of government bonds deposited in the 
National Treasury. 

The Popular Credit Bank. — Established to operate in 
money loans on deposits, mortgages, and guaranty of pri- 
vate and public securities, it has lately resolved to widen the 
circle of its operations, and to-day it equals other similar 
establishments. 

London Brazilian Bank Limited. — Authorized by decree 
of general government to establish in the capital a branch 
bank, it began operations. 

The capital of the head bank is : 

Subscribed £1,5 50,000 

Paid ...... 750,000 

Fund 500,000 



112 



The State of Par a. 



The capital of its branch at Para, according to the official 
declaration of its agent to the Fiscal Department of the 
state, scarcely reaches 300 contos of reis. 

It operates in discounts, loans, exchange, etc. 



MISCELLANEOUS COMPANIES. 



Established in the State. 



The Gram-Para Water Company. — Incorporated in May, 
188 1, it commenced to furnish water to the public October, 
1883, having laid 139 service-pipes, that produced the first 
month a receipt of i:70o$ooo. 

Its original capital was 800 contos of reis, raised later on 
to 1,000, and afterwards to 2,ooo:ooo$ooo. 

The government of the state exempts this company from 
all taxes ; gave lands and water sources to amount of over 
100 contos of reis, and indemnifies it for all custom-house 
duties in the importation of necessary materials for its 
work, etc. 

Its shares are sold in the market at a premium of 95 %, 
its dividends having been as follows : 



1st, December, 


1884 


on 


625:4001000 4 % 


25:oi6$ooo 


2d, June, 


1885 


a 


8oo:ooo$ooo 4 % 


32:000^000 


3d, December, 


1885 


a 


$% 


40:ooo$ooo 


4th, June, 


1886 


a 


6% 


48:ooo$ooo 


5th, December, 


1886 


a 


i,ooo:ooo$ooo 6 % 


6o:ooo$ooo 


6th, June, 


1887 


a 


7% 


70:ooo$ooo 


7th, December, 


1887 


a 


Sfo 


8o:ooo$ooo 


8th, June, 


1888 


a 


6% 


6o:ooo$ooo 


9th, December, 


1888 


a 


7% 


7o:ooo$ooo 


10th, June, 


1889 


a 


7% 


70:000$000 


nth, December, 


1889 


a 


7% 


7o:ooo$ooo 


12th, June, 


1890 


a 


i,io3:26o$ooo 7 % 


77:228^000 


13th, December, 


1890 


a 


i,223:5oo$ooo 6 % 


73:4io$ooo 




775:654$ooo 



Public Revenues and Commerce. 



113 



The company has already laid 61,631 metres of water- 
pipes, and the daily consumption of water is over 1,000,000 
of litres, 

The value of the properties and completed works reaches 
the sum of 1,274:9221870. 



Insurance Company of Gram-Pard. — Authorized by Decree 
No. 8,400, of February 4, 1882, and organized March 25th 
of the same year. 

Its capital is : 



Realized 
Not realized 
Reserve fund 



ioo:ooo$ooo 

90o:ooo$ooo i,ooo:ooo$ooo 
65:8828508 



Its shareholders number 98, and the transfer of shares 
was realized in 1891 at the prices of 1008000 and 1 108500. 

ACCIDENTS PAID SINCE ITS FOUNDATION. 



Year. 


Maritime. 


Terrestrial. 


Total. 


1882 . . 


508721 


i:7S4$793 


i:8o5$5i4 


1883 




7:42 1 $747 


4148497 


7:8368244 


1884 




58:8188580 


— 


58:8188580 


1885 




5708280 


— 


5708280 


1886 




9:9271494 


75$ooo 


10:002^494 


1887 




6:339$! 1 3 


32:6508000 


38:9898113 


1888 




2:7221273 


62:2411552 


64:9638825 


1889 




io:i56$433 


— 


.10:1568433 


189O 




22:oi8$572 


— 


22:oi8$572 


I 89I . . 


49:4058092 


280$IOO 


49:6858196 




167:4301305 


97:4158942 


264:8468251 



U4 



The State of Para. 



DIVIDENDS DISTRIBUTED SINCE ITS FOUNDATION. 



2d 


half-year of 1883 


™%% 


i2:5oo$ooo 


2d 


a 


1 I884 


6 % 


6:ooo$ooo 


ist 


a 


' 1885 


iH% 


i2:5oo$ooo 


2d 


a 


" 1885 


I2J- % 


i2:5oo$ooo 


ist 


<< 


< 1886 


12\% 


i2:5oo$ooo 


2d 


a 


" 1886 


12\% 


i2:5oo$cxx> 


2d 


a 


" I887 


15 % 


i5:ooo$ooo 


ist 


<< < 


' 1888 


\2\% 


i2:5oo$ooo 


ist 


<< 


' I889 


7 % 


7:ooo$ooo 


2d 


a 


" I889 


7\% 


7:5oo$ooo 


ist 


a 


' I89O 


5 % 


5:ooo$ooo 


2d 


a 


" I89O 


7 % 


7:ooo$ooo 


2d 


a 


" I89I 


22 % 


22:<X)0$000 




i44:5oo$ooo 



Commercial Insurance Company. — The capital of the 
company, according to the balance of June 30, 1892, is the 
following : 

Realized . . i5o:ooo$ooo 
Not realized . i,35o:ooo$ooo i,50o:oqo$ooo 

Reserve fund . i68:577$49i 

Especial reserve fund 6o>593$735 

The especial reserve fund is destined to guarantee divi- 
dends, and is formed from the balance of profits, after 
expenses have been deducted. 

Since its installation the company has paid 459:537$435 
of dividends; the last having been at 25 % or the maximum 
permitted by the statutes. 



The Para and Amazon Company was organized in 1883 
with the capital of 1,500 contos of reis, in 3,000 shares of 
5oo$ooo each, and commenced to work in 1884 with eight 
paddle-wheel steamers. In 1889 tn * s capital was reduced to 
2,933 shares of 25o$ooo. The company receives a subsidy 
of 48:ooo$ooo yearly, in order to make a voyage to Santa 
Julia. 



Public Revenues and Commerce. 115 

Its fleet is composed of seven steamers, three being con- 
structed in America and four in England. 

The company has always struggled against great diffi- 
culties, and so far has never distributed dividends. It 
owns the Central Wharf of Bel£m. 

The lines which the company runs are : 

Santa Julia once monthly, subsidized by the state. 

The islands, twice monthly \ 

The Purus River, once monthly V not subsidized. 

The Madeira River, six times yearly ) 

Established A broad. 

The Amazon Steam Navigation Company, Limited, — 
Founded in London with a nominal capital of ^"625,000, 
divided in 50,000 shares of £\2 \os each, of which 40,419 
only have been issued, amounting to ^505, 237. To this 
was transferred, in July, 1872, the Navigation and Com- 
mercial Amazon Co., organized in Rio de Janeiro in 1852, 
with the capital of 4,ooo:ooo$ooo, divided in 20,000 shares. 

In 1874 occurred the fusion of the Para Fluvial Co., in 
January, and in July the Fluvial Co. of the Upper Amazon, 
both subsidized by the government. 

The fleet of the Amazon Steam Navigation Co. consists 
now of twenty-nine steamers of 9,184 tons. 

It possesses also an important machine-shop, with foundry, 
docks for repairs, etc. ; valuable buildings and lands, deposits 
for coal, and a vast metallic wharf, where steamers touch for 
loading and unloading, and for the embarking and disembark- 
ing of passengers. 

The company steamers made, during the last year, in 
the different lines over 500,000 miles ; one of these lines 
communicating directly with the republic of Peru, and 
others indirectly with Bolivia and Venezuela. 

In 1853, the first establishment of the company, its 
income was 34:205$82i, coming from: 

Freight 12:85 5$i82 

Passages 21:3501639 



u6 



The State of Para. 



During the last five years it rose : 



In 1887 . 


• 2,578:673$i9o 


" 1888 . 


. 2,918:9261040 


" 1889 .... 


. 2,839:344970 


" 1890 .... 


. 3,009:5101430 


" 1891 .... 


. 4,070:9481640 



The dividends distributed have been at 7 %, with the 
single exception of 1887, in which they were at 6 %. 



BOOTH S LINE OF STEAMERS. 

The steamers of Booth's line initiated twenty-five years 
ago the regular navigation between Europe and the ports 
of Northern Brazil. 

At this time began the monthly voyages between Liver- 
pool and Para, Maranham, and Ceara, stopping at Lisbon. 
Later on, Para was granted another monthly line, but direct 
and exclusive, with steamers especially adapted to the ser- 
vice between this port and Lisbon, Havre, and Liverpool, 
enlarging the original line so as to include Hamburg, 
Antwerp, Havre, and Oporto. 

The steamers maintain two monthly lines between New 
York and North Brazil, being : one between that port and 
Para, Maranham, and Ceara, and the other between New 
York and Manaos, stopping at Para. 

Its steamers enjoy privileges of packets, but receive no 
favor whatever from the central government nor from the 
States of Para, Maranham, and Ceara ; the Amazon, however, 
gives a subsidy of 48:ooo$ooo yearly to the monthly line 
between New York and Manaos. 

In the four monthly lines ten steamers of 13,949 tons are 
employed, capable of taking 522 passengers ; two steamers 
being appropriated entirely to the service of passengers, and 
two are being substituted by new ones of a better class. 

The following tables demonstrate clearly the real services 
which this line of steamers lends to the important commerce 
of this state. 




INTERIOR OF THEATRE OF PAZ. 



Public Revenues and Commerce. 
List of the Steamers of Booth's Line. 



117 



Names 



Lanfranc 
Anselm . 
Augustine 
Ambrose 
Basil . . 
Clement 
Cyril 
Gregory . 
Justin 
Origen . 



Tonage of 
Register 



1,657 
1,562 

1,105 
I,l68 
1,184 
1,227 
1,190 

i,744 
i,54i 



13,949 



Capacity for Passengers 



1st Class 



71 

68 
12 

15 
12 
10 
10 
15 
15 
12 



240 



2d Class 



70 
70 
20 
20 
20 
12 

15 
20 
20 
15 



282 



Passage Rates. 





Going 


Round 

Voyage 






1st Class 


3d Class 


1st Class 


Leave Para 




£ S D 


£ s d 1 ;; : 




Liverpool 
Havre . 
Lisboa . 
Madeira 
New York 


• 


25 
25 O 
20 O O 
20 O O 
$90 


12 10 
12 10 
10 
10 

$45 


40 O O 
40 - - 

35 


17th 
17th 
I7th 
I7th 


Manaos 
Maranhao . 
Ceara . 
Barbados 


B s 60,000 

B[ 35,ooo 
B s 70,000 
B s 200,000 


17,000 

12,000 

20,000 

100,000 


105,000 


23d 

20th 

20th 
30th 



Freight varies according to cargo and time. 
This is the same table used for the steamers of Red Cross 
Line. 



8 



The State of Para. 



Chart of the Cargo Transported from Para by the Steamers of Booth's 
Line, from 1882 to 1891, Inclusive. 





Quantities in tons 


OF IOOO KILOGRAMMES 


















TOTAL 


(A 


FOR EUROPE 


FOR NEW-YORK 




< 


<U 







3 


<u 


u 









O a 









w 

3 


a 




p0 


"5 


-as 
O 
cs 

U 


O 

> 


r-H O 
O M 




"3 


u 







P4 



£ 


O 
O 


O 

d 

> 



H 


1882 


l8lO 


690 


648 


96 


3244 


605 


no 





94 


809 


2415 


800 


648 


T90 


4053 


1883 


I692 


015 


6l8 


I4O 


3065 


90I 


150 


— 


75 


1126 


2593 


765 


6l8 


215 


4191 


I884 


i 1885 


1105 


350 


51 


3391 


I406 


1180 


— 


54 


2640 


3291 


2285 


350 


I05 


6031 


1885 


1 2 202 


710 


IOO 


375 


3387 


2l66 


600 


— 


55 


2821 


4368 


1310 


IOO 


430 


6208 


t886 


! 2289 


39 1 


16 


150 


2846 


2863 


720 


— 


134 


37i7 


5152 


mi 


16 


284 


6563 


1S87 


1 2051 


919 


1341 


143 


4454 


3019 


1310 


— 


56 


4385 


5070 


2229 


1341 


199 


8839 


1888 


! 2599 


1200 


I4OO 


312 


5502 


3866 


i860 


— 


75 


5801 


6456 


3060 


I4OO 


387 


1 1 303 


1889 


! 2680 


840 


525 


250 


4295 


3747 


1015 


8 


95 


4865 


6427 


1855 


533 


345 


9160 


1890 


i 2056 


100 


429 


158 


2743 


3937 


400 


42 


81 


4460 


5993 


500 


471 


239 


7203 


1891 


1 3078 


3090 


1505 


137 


7810 


4095 
26605 


3310 


47 


56 


75o8 


7173 


6400 1552 

l 


193 


I53i8 


Total 


22342 


9660 


6932 


1812 


40737 


10655 


97 


775 


38132 


48938 


20315 7029 

I 


2587 


78869 



Besides these lines of navigation, Belem of Para communi- 
cates with Europe and the United States of America by 
means of the Red Cross Line and the U. S. and Brazil Mail 
Steamship Co., which have regular lines, some of which are 
directed exclusively to this place. The Red Cross Line em- 
ploys nine steamers of 9,467 tons, and the U. S. and Brazil 
Mail Steamship Co. five steamers of 11,356 tons. 



Besides the enterprises and companies quoted are many 
others in Para, about which sufficient information has not 
been obtained for this work. 

The Navigation Enterprise of the Guamd and Tocantins 
rivers. 

The Perfected Ceramic. 

The Para Paper Factory which is now starting an important 
steam factory. 



Public Revenues and Commerce. 119 

The Maranham Coast Co., subsidized by the state of 
Para for coast navigation between the two capitals, and in 
which are employed five steamers of 2,278 tons. 

The Lloyd Brazileira, which employs twelve steamers of 
1,355 tons, in the service of interior navigation, receiving for 
several lines subsidies paid by the state, and for the exterior 
navigation seven steamers of 13,993 tons. 

The Gram-Pard Industrial Enterprise, which maintains a 
complete telephonic service in an extensive area of more 
than five kilometres. 

The Auxiliary Commercial Co., holding large warehouses 
and wharves along the shore of the capital. 

The Oporto Guarantee Insurance Co., with an important 
agency in land and maritime insurance. 

The Pard Building Co., with nearly fifty edifices, and 
others in construction ; enjoying benefits and privileges 
conceded by the government. 

The Pard Tramway Co. exclusively holds all the lines of 
American street-cars, which intersect the city in all directions. 

The Pard Gas Co. 

The Protecting Farming Industrial Co., destined to protect 
farming industry, and supply the market with fresh meat. 

The Brazilian Cold Storage Co., which proposes to estab- 
lish in this capital a permanent deposit for preserving meats 
by the freezing system, for which they have all the necessary 
materials. 

The capital subscribed is sixty thousand contos of reis, 
and it has already seven appropriate steamers. 

The Railway and Navigation Co. of the Tocantins and 
Araguaya, with the capital of twenty thousand contos of reis, 
for the construction of the Araguaya and Tocantins Railway, 
in order to avoid the dangerous waterfalls of the river. The 
steamers will navigate between the terminal points of the 
railway and the ports of Bel£m and the Upper Tocantins 
and Araguaya. 

The railway plans are finished, and the river navigation 
service between Alcobaga and Belem is already initiated. 



PART V. 

INDUSTRIES.— WAYS OF COMMUNICATION AND 
TRANSPORT.— AGRICULTURE. 



INDUSTRIES. 

PARA, sooner or later, will become an industrial country. 

When the fabulous riches of its forests of exploration 
begin to decrease, or no longer exist in direct proportion to 
the laborers who will one day throng hither, then the 
speculative spirit of civilization will learn to know and utilize 
the magnificent materials which strew the Amazonian soil. 

The rich forests, from which a small number of specimens 
will figure in the Columbian Exposition, will furnish woods 
for the most ingenious constructions, unsurpassed luxury, 
and art. 

The acrocomia and the astrocaria, to which belong the 
jauary and the tucum, and an infinity of palms which 
abound on the margins of our rivers, contain in their leaflets 
delicate fibres, fine as silk, and stronger than linen or tow of 
Egypt. 

From these fibres are woven hammocks, carpets, summer- 
hats, mats, and fine baskets. 

From the piassaba and other mauritias are made brooms 
and great ship cables. 

From all is extracted a fine white oakum, which industry 
one day will prefer for calking in great shipyards, and 
which can be employed in the manufacture of paper. 

Some climbing plants give cipos of great strength, from 
which are already manufactured baskets and hats. 

An infinity of other vegetables with therapeutical virtues, 
recognized by scientific authorities, answer for a complete 
pharmacopic industry. 

Many others give from their fruits, or from their proper 
saps (the andirobeira, the castankeira, and cumartizeiro, etc.), 
oils finer than the best reputed in the market. 

123 



124 The State of Para. 

There are trees whose barks and wood give beautiful 
dyes, so that five dyeing establishments at Para are already 
utilizing, in a great measure, these vegetable products. 

In the Amazonian forests are an infinity of resins, which 
substitute gum-arabic, and others which are among the best 
reputed in the market. 

In the animal kingdom, so diversified and great, there are 
animals which give machine oil ; others strong and delicate 
skins for shoes and even gloves ; among this number are 
the alligator, the otter, the deer, and the ariranha, etc. 

Finally, in the mineral kingdom, and constituting the 
greater part of the subsoil of the Amazon, there are clays of 
the most beautiful and varied colors, which can be used 
even in fine crockery. 

In the region of Monte-Alegre are layers of gneiss, slates, 
and marble, of which specimens go to the Exposition. 

There, and in the valleys of Tocantins and Tapajos, indi- 
cations of coal mines have been discovered. 

Of all this industry will take account, and Amazonia will 
export one day for the old world, at the side of its natural 
products, the manufactures of its riches. 

Labor, in Para, had a rapid evolution from indigenous or 
African slavery to freedom, and in this jump industry 
and agriculture, that had gone on prosperously in their 
start, suffered a sort of drawback. 

Besides this, steam navigation on the Amazon, introduced 
in 1 85 1, facilitating entrance to the interior, took the small 
number of working hands, which were employed in native 
industries, to extract rubber, whose price commenced to 
augment with its increasing applications. 

Thus, in 1862 we had 264 industrial establishments, dis- 
tributed in the following form : 166 sugar estates, 24 soap 
factories, 6 oil factories, 18 lime-kilns, 6 crockery manu- 
factories, 6 tanneries, 1 cashew-wine manufactory, 1 chocolate 
manufactory, 3 rice mills, 1 coffee mill, 25 brick yards, 10 
saw-mills. We do not reckon in this estimate 1,565 rough 
machines for the preparation of mandioca meal, because 
this rudimental industry constitutes almost a custom of the 



Industries. 



125 



rural population of Para, with scarcely any improvement 
since the time of the Indians, among whom it was already 
so common that Pedro Teixeira, in the first Portuguese ex- 
pedition to the Amazons, bought in one Indian settlement 
alone 800 alqueires of farinha. 

To-day this industry is neglected for want of hands, and 
the greater part of farinha that serves as food to Amazonia 
comes from Maranham. 

The factories mentioned in 1862 gave for home consump- 
tion as well as to other provinces, thus : 





Kilogrammes. 


Official Value. 


Soap . 


• • 16,397 


5:ioi$28o 


Sugar . 


. . 260,991 


35:5 3 8$i20 


Rice . 


. . 510,192 


33458$i8o 



The product of other industries was consumed in the prov- 
ince itself, which imported almost nothing for its alimentation. 

In proportion, however, in which the extraction of rubber 
developed, and the price of its products augmented, the 
sugar mills stopped their traffic, or limited it to the making 
of rum ; and of the products which we exported, we no 
longer have cotton, rice, sugar, and coffee ; and of oil we 
have only exported 6,404 litres. 

Para will, withal, reconquer its place in the industrial 
movement of the century, and the fall of exchange, with 
the rising of prices of foreign products, has made us think 
that we have not been placed in such a rich country merely 
to explore what Nature affords us in the endless products 
of its forests. 

The government, on its side, has lately comprehended 
that it is necessary to favor industry, and the legislative 
power will soon diminish the taxes which weigh over it. 

Already a guaranty of 6 per cent, interest on a capital of 
600 contos of reis has been conceded for the establishment 
of a paper factory which will utilize our vegetable fibres. 

Also is in treaty the establishment of a rope and carpet 
factory, whose machinery is already spoken for ; a privilege 
for a rubber factory has also been conceded. 



126 The State of Para. 

_ The extraordinary development which the capital of Para 
has created, at the side of building industry, furnishes all 
improvements necessary to great cities — paving, gas illu- 
mination, water supply, telephone, telegraph lines, etc. 

Municipal government has paved the streets with parallelo- 
pipedons of granite and of wood ; these last have been 
prepared in the state, and make both handsome and durable 
pavements, creating for us a new industry. 

The water supply was contracted for with the Engineer 
Ed. Compton, and by him transferred, in 1881, to an 
anonymous company, which has already realized a capi- 
tal of 2,ooo:ooo$ooo, giving a semi-annual dividend of 8 
per cent. 

The works commenced in 1882, and were concluded in 
1885, water having been furnished to the city since 1883. 

The distributing tubes are of cast-iron, two to three 
inches in diameter. 

The two subterraneous reservoirs from the rivulet 
Utinga, which furnish the water supplies, have each a ca- 
pacity of 2,000 cubic metres. The reservoir of S. Braz has 
a cylindrical form, and is of forged iron, with the capacity 
of 1,570 cubic metres, or 1,570,000 litres of water, and is 35 
metres above the ground, in order to make the distribution, 
and is supported by columns of cast-iron, the water being 
raised by means of forcing and lifting pumps, moved by 
steam boilers of 30 horse-power. 

The canalized waters, according to various analyses, at 
different times, are abundant and pure. 

Gas illumination was inaugurated in 1864 and the time of 
its contract is about to expire, the municipality having made 
advertisements, in different capitals, calling for proposals to 
undertake this service by carbonic gas or by electricity. 

The telegraphic service which connects Para with other 
parts of Brazil and foreign countries has three lines : the 
English, French, and National. The first was inaugurated 
in 1872, the second in 1885, and the third in 1891. 

The telephonic service was inaugurated in 1882. It is 
regularly good, and has lines of considerable length, accom- 



Industries. 127 

panying the Braganca railway, the longest being 74 kilo- 
metres, which communicates the capital with the agricultural 
colonies of Castanhal, Araripe, and others. 

The looking for immediate profits has limited our indus- 
trial movement to little more than this. We have three 
small branches, which are still being explored ; viz., sugar- 
cane plantation, brick-yards, and steam saw-mills, the motive 
power of which, almost always, is steam ; whereas the mil- 
lionth part of the force of the current of our small rivers 
would be sufficient to put into movement all the factories in 
the world. 

According to Agassiz, the rivers seem destined to serve 
primarily as a motive power for saw-mills, which are to be 
established along their margins, and afterwards as a means 
of transportation for the material thus prepared. 

Once more the government, who has finally compre- 
hended this truth, is constructing in the Castanhal colony a 
large saw-mill with an engine to grind cane, the transmissory 
wheel of which will be moved by the current of the rivulet 
Castanhal, which has a force of 9 horse-power. 

Para has 10 1 sugar estates, 64 being worked by steam and 
37 moved by water and animals. They represent a total 
capital of 2,000 contos, giving a receipt of 910 contos of 
reis, which does not compensate for the expense of planting 
cane and dear hand labor, and, on this account, this industry 
remains stationary. 

The state has 36 steam saw-mills, 6 of which border the 
Braganca railway, and with the surrounding woods and fa- 
cility of transport are already giving favorable results. 

Para has 35 brick-yards, of which the Barcarena, moved by 
steam, was the first of this kind in Brazil, and all represent a 
capital of 960 contos of reis. 

Lately the capital of Para has developed in such a man- 
ner that in the past year alone have been constructed over 
700 dwellings ; on account of which the materials of construc- 
tion here used, such as tiles, bricks, boards, and planks, have 
risen extraordinarily in price, so that saw-mills and brick- 
yards yield an immense income. 



128 The State of Para. 

Other industries have developed almost exclusively 
in the capital, where we have as principal establishments : 
4 soap factories, I glazed-ware and earthen-tube factory, I 
ice factory, and mineral waters, 2 chocolate factories, 2 of 
metallic works, i powder factory, and several small copper- 
smiths', blacksmiths', and turners' shop, tanneries, and 
joiners' shops. 

In Cameta there is one ucuuba oil factory. 

In Santarem there are, besides saw-mills and brick-yards, 
lime kilns and cashew-wine-presses, 2 yards for naval 
constructions. 

The industrial movement of this town is due to a small 
remaining colony of Americans, who established themselves 
there over twenty years ago. 

The capital contains 1 1 large workshops, of which 8 are 
larger and 3 smaller. 

The larger ones are : of the Marine Arsenal (with saw- 
mills, carpenter, and cooper shop and foundry), Coelho & 
Co's and Manoel Pedro & Co's (with saw-mills and carpenter 
shops), the Amazon Co's (with coppersmith and blacksmith 
shops and foundry), Bulhosa & Co's and George Sumner & 
Co's (with cooper and blacksmith shops and foundry), the 
Arsenal of War (with carpenter, tailor, and shoemaker 
shops), and the Braganca railway (with carpenter and black- 
smith shops and foundry). The smaller are : The Para 
tramway with carpenter shop and the Providencia (the Catho- 
lic Bishop's Institute), with saw-mills, carpenter, joiner and 
tinsmith shops, and the Boys' Institute with joiner, shoe- 
maker, tailor, and blacksmith shops. 

We have not the miserable proletarian class, which with 
the crisis in labor represents one of the most difficult 
problems for European governments. 

The Para workman is a citizen in full enjoyment of his 
civil and political rights ; if he does not live luxuriously, he 
at least lives comfortably. 

The working hours number from 8 to 9 daily. The salary 
in the shops is from 3 to 8 mil reis per day, and one never 
hears of strikes, as it is easy for a discontented workman 



Industries. 



129 



always to find even more advantageous employment, because 
of the extraordinary need of workmen in Amazonia. 

The number of workmen belonging to different liberal 
professions can be calculated in thousands. 

The workshops which, through their standing, pay. duties 
are : 29 tailor shops, 1 tannery, 7 fire-work factories, 1 shirt- 
making establishment, 3 umbrella factories, 1 engraver's 
shop, and 2 mineral-water establishments, 1 lime kiln, 2 
marble-cutters, 4 liqueurs establishments, 1 box factory, 1 
perfumery establishment, 12 tinsmith shops, 3 farrier-shops, 
1 harness-maker shop, 12 goldsmith shops, 60 bakeries, 3 
photographic establishments, 5 watchmakers, 10 shoe- 
maker shops, 5 dyeing establishments, 44 tobacconists, 23 
barber shops, 6 joiner shops, and many other establishments, 
forming in the capital a total of 2,161. 

In the state there are altogether 41 typographical and 2 
lithographical establishments, which publish 32 papers: 
The Official Diary, The Province of Para, The Para Post, 
The Democrat, The Republic, The Workmen s Tribune, The 
Christian Apologist, The Musical Gazette, The Musical Saloon, 
The School, The Brazil, and The Clerk's Voice, in the capital ; 
The Abaete'ense, The Equator, The A lemquer Gazette, The Local 
Intrigue, The Tocantins, The Bragantino, The Republican, 
The Citizen, The Caete'ense, The Commercial, The Reaction, 
The MonteTribune, The Monte-Alegrense, The Baixo Ama- 
zonas, The Municipio, The Marapaniense, The Gurupdense, The 
Curucdense, and The Light, in the interior of the state. 

Among the companies which are opening up industries we 
have, besides those quoted : one Constructing Company, with 
municipal privilege for building workmen's houses, of which 
it has already given an example in the Villa McDowell ; 
one Protecting Industrial Co., with the aim of treating the 
interests of the stock-raisers. This company has already 
realized the capital of 25o:ooo$ooo, and distributes satisfac- 
tory dividends to its shareholders. 

We have four insurance companies : the Gram-Para with 
the capital of 100 contos, taking maritime risks against 
goods and money, and land against fire and lightning ; the 



130 The State of Para, 

Para Commercial Co., with 1,500 contos, taking maritime 
and land insurance; the Garantia do Porto; the Par aense, 
this last with the capital of 500 contos, taking land and 
maritime insurance. 

Para has had at times different associations for the osten- 
sible purpose of protecting industrial arts ; not any of them, 
however, have succeeded in raising the necessary large capi- 
tal for an industrial speculation, capable of breaking the old 
routine of commerce. 

We must do all in our power to attract here an intelligent 
colony who will utilize our raw material, and this we will 
realize when it is known that our climate is in reality what 
Agassiz declares it to be — " the best moderated in the world, 
having scarcely 31 Centigrade for the mean of its maxi- 
mum, and the Amazonian death-rate is ^^ daily." 

We are certain the Exposition at Chicago, making us 
known to European civilization, will place South America 
at the head of the world and develop from the Amazon the 
strength for the most powerful conceptions of the coming 
century. 



WAYS OF COMMUNICATION AND TRANSPORT. 

The great economic transformations, which day by day 
operate in the largest and most fertile valley of the world, 
are fulfilling Humboldt's prophecy, the "legend of gold " of 
Amazonia. 

" It is there," says the scientist, " that one day, sooner or 
later, will concentrate the civilization of the globe." The 
prediction of science is no more, as of old, an unfounded 
hope ; the Amazon, following the Ganges, the Euphrates and 
the Nile, has already visibly engraved the first dates of its 
future greatness : the application of steam in the transporta- 
tion of its varied products ; the free navigation of the great 
river to the flags of all nations ; the emancipation of slavery 




_l o 

< £ 

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cc o 

U 

o 
o 



The Ways of Communication and Transport. 131 

in the production of its inexhaustible riches, the order and 
progress proclaimed in our political constitution, accent, like 
glowing pages of history, the initiation of the grand Ama- 
zonian civilization. 

What more beautiful, in its majestic simplicity, than the 
Amazon valley, whose immense circuit, starting from the 
golden plateaux of the Guianas, terminates in the eastern de- 
clivities of the Andes, where earth and sky meet and caress 
in the aqueous bosom of the giant of rivers ! In this laby- 
rinth of islands and waters, where creation unrolls itself 
so sublime and fertile ; where its mountains rise sky-high, 
and their counterforts follow in hilly chains or ranges ; where 
ice melts and the clear fountains precipitate themselves in 
dizzy rapids ; in these regions of colossal forests, of smiling 
plains where vegetation precedes life and life art, the work 
of man must one day show itself powerful. 

The river-sea and its tributaries have traced the tajectory of 
Amazonian commerce over a surface almost equal to that 
of Europe, viz., seven millions of square kilometres. From 
Lake Lauricocha, in the cordilheiras of the Andes, 212 kilo- 
metres from the city of Lima, the Amazon, in the beginning 
a delicate streamlet of water, fertilizer of the valley of 
Huantar, descends in the gigantic hydrographical scale of 
5,500 metres; and, by a canal of 13,000 metres, opened be- 
tween scraggy rocks, noisy as a cry of triumph, precipitates 
itself from the enormous Andean bar in the Mediterranean 
of fresh water, which gives its name, announcing, like an- 
other Columbus, the natural road for the circulation of 
the incommensurable riches of Amazonia by the Atlantic 
and Pacific. Venezuela through the river Negro, Bolivia 
through the Madeira, Peru through the Jurud, Puriis, and 
Javary, New Granada through the led and Japurd, 
Ecuador through the Napo, Goyaz through the Tocantins, 
Matto-Grosso through the Tapajds, all powerfully contribute 
to make of this mysterious El-Dorado, richer than Asia, 
placed between two oceans, at equal distance from Canada 
and the Plate, Central Europe and Southern Africa, the 
great emporium, the commercial centre of the world. 



132 The State of Para. 

On the other hand, observation and intimate examination 
of phenomena, and the abstract relations under which they 
present themselves, gave to scientific theories the exactness 
necessary for their application in practice. 

The care with which actually established results are scrup- 
ulously separated from those which are merely founded in 
doubtful analogy ; the severe and uniform criticism which 
is employed in the study of the forces of nature, and the 
study of redistribution of matter and movement, permitted 
that the progress of science, in continual contact with the 
external world, should operate in the organization of all the 
arts of life the most rapid and fruitful revolution. 

Everywhere science becomes the patrimony of humanity ; 
agriculture, industry, and commerce transformed themselves, 
obeying its utile mandates. 

Amazonia, in the age of great industries, could not 
escape the manifold benefits of science. Country, admired 
by the scientists, in a few years it became a vast market, open 
to human activity. Labor, capital, credit, conveyance, ex- 
change, and speculation, all obeyed science, interposing in 
the production of wealth. Electricity, steam navigation, 
liberty, and law operated the acceleration of this grand 
social and economical transformation. 

All under the dominion of science is transformed in this 
majestic valley. Labor multiplies its forces without end ! 

See here the thousand forms of machinery employed for 
the benefit of man ! See here the infinity of forces hitherto 
unemployed, which, by miracle, have become useful ! The 
railway here comes to explore the wealth of buried centuries. 
The locomotive brings with it regularity, frequency, ra- 
pidity, and low freights. From Belem to Braganca, it ex- 
tends its giant arms ! Three hundred kilometres of the 
road are already authorized to be laid, seventy-five being in 
operation, and the locomotive goes onward gaily announcing 
the good, the progress, the civilization, in one more centre 
of triumph for engineering ! 

Electricity, that mysterious link which unites sky and 
earth, and fraternizes humanity ; that marvellous force which 



Ways of Communication and Transport. 133 

seizes the lightning from the very clouds, and that transmits 
human word and human will across space almost as simply 
as thought, has already united in this universal embrace 
Amazonia with Europe and America. 

And while the human voice glides in sonorous undulations 
over the delicate threads of the telephone, which now serves 
the most important city of Amazonia, the telegraph, com- 
mercial agent of incalculable value, establishes international 
relations of commerce between all the civilized outside world 
and Amazonia. 

Blessings on the steamers which traverse the solitary wilds 
of the Amazon ! 

Applauded be the law of 1850 ! 

" When it is remembered," says Tavares Bastos, " in olden 
times before the opening of steam navigation, that it took 
one month to descend to Para from Manaos, and to return a 
still longer time ; when we consider that to-day this can be 
done in less than a week ; that at Para touch every month the 
steamers of the North-American line, which unite the valley 
of the Amazon to the markets of the United States, and 
other lines from Liverpool, which put it in direct communica- 
tion with the ports of England and Europe ; when we con- 
sider that a letter can go in sixteen days from Manaos to 
New York, then we can certainly think with delight on the 
magnificent future which these new means of communication 
reserve for Amazonia." 

Really the steamer is the true means of locomotion in the 
great river and its tributaries. The marvellous American 
invention encountered in the Amazon the proper and eco- 
nomical means for its great development. Transportation 
there is made under the rule of free competition. Freights 
vary according to the nature of the merchandise, the im- 
portance of the cargo, and navigable conditions which make 
the tariffs just and reasonable. Forty-two steamers of 52,000 
tons are employed in the navigation of the outside harbor. 
Seventy-two steamers, with 20,000 tons, besides innumerable 
sailing vessels, are employed in the coasting trade. The vast 
Amazon River and its tributaries have the enormous exten- 



134 The State of Par d. 

sion of 80,000 navigable kilometres. The annual movement 
of its transports is calculated in millions of kilometres. 

The steamer makes in this way an absolute revolution. In 
1867 the law of the free navigation of the Amazon was 
passed. Later on the emancipation of slavery continued the 
work of civilization. The steamer was the forerunner of the 
great public freedom of Amazonia ! 

Commerce in the Amazonian valley has exceeded in 
rapidity all commercial development hitherto seen. In a 
few years it has surpassed many older foreign markets. In 
Brazil no other state has reached it in its progressive devel- 
opment. Labor in Amazonia brings abundant harvests. 
The profit of capital and of commerce, extremely well re- 
munerated, is valued from the exportation which, being in 
Brazil 45 francs per inhabitant, raised it in the United States 
to 100 francs, and in the Amazon to 150 francs. 

Rubber is the principal product of exportation ; its superi- 
ority, in comparison with that of other countries, is confirmed 
by the statistics of England and of the United States of 
America ; for the inferior rubber of Para, denominated ser- 
namby, fluctuates in those markets at an equal price with 
superior rubber of other countries. The totality, so to speak, 
of the commercial transactions of gomma elastica made of 
this rich product one unparalleled market. 

Its trade was sufficient to give independent life to 
Amazonia. 

By excellence of the soil, of gums, of resins, of fibres, oils, 
pharmaceutical products, of richest woods, Amazonia offers 
to labor the most lucrative results. The annual production 
of the forests left unemployed, is estimated at over 500,000 
millions of francs. 

The rubber in the year 1891 produced the large sum of 
54,ooo:ooo$ooo. 

On economical subjects, statistics furnish exact conclusions. 
The official tables annexed demonstrate the rapid progres- 
sion of commerce, which, year after year, increases by thou- 
sands of contos. 1 These tables constitute incontestable 

1 One conto of reis equals about $500, at par rate. 



Ways of Communication and Transport. 135 

proofs. Here you have them ; examine them ; convince 
yourselves. 

This great Amazon valley once known and the prestige of 
science in modern civilization, easy it is to comprehend how 
material transformations have concurred to render social life 
more varied, more luxurious, and more free in the magnifi- 
cent valley. 

Progress drove far away the confusion and sorrows of the 
past. 

Public administration uniformly maintains order. Police 
and justice are strong. Individual security is complete. 
Public right is respected. Social necessities grow and 
develop and unfold with new and varied resources. 

Rich and beautiful Amazonia possesses that which will im- 
press her ideas and her will on the face of the universe. 

" Progress" says H. Coudreau, " is indefinite ; no race is its 
perpetual keeper. It is like a legacy, bequeathed by the race 
which disappears to the one which succeeds. Its course is on- 
ward ; it has already moved westward towards Europe ; it has 
already actually moved from Europe to America. Why should 
not centuries to come see upon the banks of the Amazon their 
most magnificent flourishing, as early centuries saw their man- 
if e stations upon the banks of the rivers of Egypt and India ? " 

Always the same inquiry to preoccupy the investigations 
of the scientists ! 

It is the grand future which Humboldt prophesied for 
the Amazon, when, in the deep shade of the primeval 
forests, it could hardly comprehend the advantages of 
economical science, and having no intercourse with other 
people, did not either know the power of united wills, 
which is becoming a reality in proportion as its colossal 
riches multiply. 

The history of Amazonian progress, and its rapid com- 
mercial development, should teach us to have confidence in 
the future ! Certainly it will come ; as civilization advances 
more quickly, more and more rapid becomes its march. 

Let us, therefore, have confidence in the future of 
Amazonia. 



i3<5 



The State of Para. 



Direct Importation and Exportation and General Income of the State 
of Para, Demonstrated in Five Years, from 184.9 an{ ^ 
1854. to 1884. and /< 



Years. 


1 
Importation. | Exportation. 


Total. 


Custom-House 
Income. 


1849-1854 

1854-1859 

1859-1864 

1864-1869 

J869-1874 

1874-1S79 

1879-1884 

1885-1889 


i3,io8:8o6$ooo 
18,471 :482$ooo 
23,749:572$ooo 
29,930:5 70$ooo 
38,i04:074$ooo 
38,692: 7 29$ooo 
100,085 :oo8$640 
9 3, 9 8i:283$i30 


i3,223:774$ooo 
18,958:7681000 
27,261 :944$ooo 
42,814:6511000 
63,090:0861000 
70,009:955^000 

i6o,733:7i9ioo7 
i66,246:832$i32 


26,332:58o$ooo 

37,430 :25o$ooo 

51,011 :526$ooo 

72,745 :22I$000 

ioi,I94:i6o$ooo 

io8,702:684$ooo 

26o,8i8:727$647 

260,228:1151262 


4,368:5271650 
6,070:o74$i6o 
8,205 :29i$749 
12,599:1 io$474 
21,245 :59i$035 
I7,825:8 9 5$567 
46,262:926$oo6 
44,210:7651071 


Total 


356,123:524^770 


562,339:729^139 


9i8,463:263$go9 


i6o,788:i8i$7I2 


Mean for every 
five years 


44,512:9401596 


7o,292:466$i42 


H4,8o7:907$988 


20,098:5221714 


1890 and 1891 . . 


40,493: 1 85$846 


97,776:7i5$899 


138,269:9011745 


1 9, 01 6:709^202 



Quantity and Value of Rubber Exported by the Custom-Houses of Para 
and Amazon in the Years 1 839-1 84.0 to i8pi. 

Demonstration of the Increase by every Five Years. 









Increase. 




Kilogrammes. 


Official Value. 


















Kilogrs. 


Value. 


I 839-1 844 


1,445,760 


70i:86o$ooo 


__ 





I 844-1 849 


2,875,350 


1,093: 19 1$000 


1,429,590 


39i:33i$ooo 


1849-1854 


7,893,555 


7,240:o66$ooo 


5,018,205 


6, 146: 875^000 


1854-1859 


9,800,685 


9,672:2i3$ooo 


1,907,130 


2,432:i47$ooo 


1859-1864 


13,829,340 


15,603:8351000 


4,028,655 


5,931 :622$ooo 


1864-1869 


21,197,272 


29,528:8991000 


7,367,932 


13,925:064^000 


1869-1874 


27,006,223 


48,102:6391000 


5,608,951 


i8,574:740$ooo 


I 874-1879 


30,360,123 


54,087:4891000 


2,353,900 


5,984:8501000 


1879-1884 


51,589.536 


134,096:5221994 


21,229,413 


80,009: 03 3$994 


1884-1889 


70,861,436 


146,999:446^166 


19,721,900 


12,902:9231172 


Total 


236,859,280 


447,i26:i6i$i6o 


68,665,676 


146,298:5861166 


1890 and 1 891 


32,347,168 5. 


89,004:1511958 






Total 


269,206,448.5 


536,i30:3i3$n8 





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138 The State of Par d. 

AGRICULTURE. 

BETWEEN the Cordilheiras of the Guianas and the high 
Orinoco to the north, and the Cordilheiras of Goyaz, Matto- 
Grosso, and the first slopes of the northeastern Andes of 
Bolivia to the south, the immense valley of Brazilian Ama- 
zonia unfolds itself, more than four hundred leagues wide, 
open to the east and west to the trade winds and those 
from the Andes that constantly refresh it, and for more 
than five hundred leagues of its course longitudinally 
washed by the greatest river of the world. From the 
steeps on both sides of the rocky summits of the Cor- 
dilheiras descend from auriferous plateaux, crossing a wild 
region of large forests and plains, the Jary, the Paru, the 
Trombetas, the bluish Nhamunda, the Negro, the Tapaj6s, 
the Xingu, the Araguaya, and the Tocantins, immense 
rivers of more than three hundred leagues of extent, cele- 
brated for the beauty of their cataracts and the opulence of 
their valleys. 

To the west, from the central depression of South Amer- 
ica and high valleys of New Granada, Ecuador, Bolivia, and 
Peru, whence the civilized Incas extracted the metals and 
costly gems which decorated their temples, flow the lea, 
the Javary, the Jurua, the Teffe, the Jutahy, the Japura, 
and the Madeira, of no less mighty waters or less rich 
valleys. To the east the chains of mountains which, start- 
ing from Goyaz, go descending towards Maranham, close 
the space on that side. Of a mild climate, an alluvial and 
fertile soil, the most luxuriant vegetation is here developed. 
On the summits and sides of mountains, in the valleys, on 
the plains, crowding one another, interweaving, struggling 
for life, representatives of all vegetable families gather 
together in the most beautiful and opulent forests. 

Strong essences, resins, the finest oils, textile substances, 
the sweetest perfumes of delicate and subtle odor, enormous 
varieties of hard woods suitable to the most beautiful and 
elegant workmanship, are to be found in incredible profusion 
in that prodigal valley. 



Agriculture. 1 39 

A vast fluvial network of more than 80,000 navigable 
kilometres, emptying in the ocean daily 43,000 millions of 
cubic feet of water, washes these forests and acts upon 
the soil, which, by its topographical disposition and by the 
action of the hydrological phenomena, presents three dif- 
ferent aspects : that of low lands annually overflowed ; that 
of high lands, exempt from inundations ; and maritime, in- 
fluenced only by the law of the vast fluvial system. The 
valley can, therefore, be considered as forming three distinct 
regions. 

Periodically fertilized by the humus which the waters 
carry from the forests, the regions of the low lands may be 
termed the lake regions, the region of igapds, igar ape's, bores, 
and paranas of gentle course, of the Victoria regia, of heveas, 
of gramineas, of rich and immense pastures and cereals, and, 
at the spots where inundation is less felt, abound cacao and 
guarana. 

It is the fertile Gessen of the future ! 

Characterized by the Bertholletia excelsa, by the Bignonia 
coerulea the high land is the region of forests and campos. 
Dense forests, bare rocks, now flat, now broken lands, magnifi- 
cent extensions of rivers, falls, cataracts, gay prairies dotted 
with oases of high trees and cut by the most crystalline 
igarapes, constitute its picturesque physiognomy. Here are 
coffee, tobacco, mandioca, cotton, and on the prairies is the 
most splendid cattle-farming region of Amazonia. 

Belonging to the same geological formation, and influenced 
by the Amazonian climatology, in many points the maritime 
region diverges little from the preceding. Separated, how- 
ever, from the vast fluvial net by the direct action of the sea, 
the climate, the briny breezes of the ocean, and the substitu- 
tion of its daily tides by the annual floods of the great river, 
modifying the nature, extension, and intensity of hydrologi- 
cal phenomena give it a special feature. With sandy shores, 
immense shallows, which alternate on its borders, it is the land 
of myrtus brazilianus, psidiums, cestrum, anarcadium occid., 
rhizophora mangle, and all this very special vegetation pecu- 
liar to the Brazilian coast from the tropics to the extreme 



140 The State of Para. 

north. Widely varied in different regions, all species pecu- 
liar to Amazonian and intertropical Brazil are to be found 
therein. 

Different gradations, establishing transitions among the 
three regions, mingle, thus forming the best of soils appro- 
priated to all kinds of cultivation. Rich in climate and raw 
material, of colossal productiveness, near Europe, Africa, the 
Pacific, and North America, served by an immense fluvial 
communication, exceptionally endowed, Amazonia is des- 
tined to become the storehouse of the world ! 

As every phenomenon, however, the economical evolution 
of its population obeys inflexible laws, and these, affirming the 
future effectiveness of a flourishing agriculture, have already 
laid solid bases, directing the activity of rural classes in the 
relationship of productions of alimental culture, and estima- 
tion of other very valuable and numberless products. 

Following the lead of alimental culture, the one which pre- 
sents the greatest development in Amazonia is that of 
mandioca (jatrophamanihot of Linneu). Its enormous pro- 
ductiveness, the variety of species which needs no renewing, 
and the diversity of products extracted therefrom give it an 
enormous preference over other foods also cultivated in the 
great valley and whose united production is not equal to it. 
Cultivated throughout Brazil, it has likewise been adopted 
by German and Italian colonies in the south of the Union. 
The same influence of soil has acted upon the preference of 
varieties of banana — musa paradisiaca — over other nourish- 
ing fruits. Thepopunka — Guillelma speciosa, the mamaoeiro — 
Carica papaia, the alligator pear-tree — Per sea gratissima, and 
the pineapple, — Br omelia pyramidalis, which almost compete 
with them in actual agricultural conditions, are commonly 
mingled with them in plantations, where less frequently are 
found the abieiro — achras caimito, Mart., the sapotas — 
achras sapota, L., the sorveira collophora utilis, and the 
aratictis — anonas, and other similar fruits. 

The same fact is yet to be verified in other agricultural 
branches. 

Coffee, formerly a product of the Amazonian exportation, 



Agriadture. 141 

was already flourishing in Vigia, Lamalonga, Moreira, Moura, 
Itacoatiara, Parintins, Barcellos, and other points. Of excel- 
lent quality, giving one kilogram and a half per tree, coffee 
planted under shade has long duration and its culture is not 
fatiguing. Harvests lately gathered in abandoned coffee 
plantations prove the extreme adaptiveness of the soil and 
climate to the precious rubiacea. 

Sugar-cane, whose development is superb, both in low and 
high lands, is cultivated in more than 1 50 agricultural estab- 
lishments, its mean production being over 80,000 kilograms 
per hectare. Like coffee, however, it needs more perfect 
processes, without which its culture will become paralyzed, 
being now reduced for almost simple alcoholic uses. 

Cotton, of the variety g. vitifolium, is cultivated here 
almost exclusively for private consumption, and shows great 
productiveness, the trees more than once during the year 
becoming white with fibres. 

The culture of cacao, the delicious theobrotna, of which 
more than six varieties are known, increases in an extraor- 
dinary manner. 

The delicacy of taste of Amazonian cacao is unsurpassed 
in any part, and claims the great attention of the culturist. 
Formerly obtained through principally extractive industry, 
the superiority of price of the cultivated encouraged the first 
regular plantations, which progressively increase. 

The cultivation of this is as easy as lucrative, and is be- 
coming more and more widely extended, as in Obidos, San- 
tarem, Monte-Alegre, Alemquer, Parintins, Mau£s, Cameta, 
and several other places. Furnishing a nourishing, and very 
delicious drink, the use of which extends daily, cacao has 
become one of the most largely exported products of the 
Amazonia. 

Tobacco, as an article of trade, has generally had a great 
impulse. In Rio de Janeiro, supplied by the best markets 
of Minas, Goyaz, S. Paulo, and Bahia, the Para tobacco is 
quoted the highest price, its cost being 20$ooo per kilogram, 
a sum which indicates its unexcelled quality. Irituia, Bra- 
ganga, and the rivers Trombetas, Guama, Acara, and Uraria, 
are the principal producing centres of the victorious solanea. 



142 The State of Para. 

Admirable has been the propagation of guarana — Paullinia 
sorbilis. Obtained from the industrious agriculture of the 
tribes Mundurucus, Maues, and Apiacas, from the Tapaj6s 
River, its use rapidly spread in Amazonia, Matto-Grosso, 
and Bolivia, these last regions being its principal markets, 
chosen specimens obtaining therein really fabulous prices. 

For Europe, North America, and the Atlantic, its search 
constantly increases; its exportation has also augmented, 
during the last years being estimated at 32,000 kilos. 

Principally cultivated in Maues, Juruty, and the rivers 
Tapajds, Madeira, and Purus, a refreshing drink is prepared 
from it, rich in caffeine. 

Following guarana, the cultivation of a very new product 
now commences, although long in use by the Ticunas and 
Omaguas of Japura, the ypadu — erythroxylum coca, Lamk. 
— an aromatic and delicious tonic, cultivated for private use 
on several plantations of the Amazon, and already known in 
Matto-Grosso. Martius, Tschudi, and Wallis quote its ad- 
mirable effects, and by the excellence of its qualities, pro- 
pose its use as a habitual drink. 

Existing in all the great valley, and demanding no care, 
urucu — bixa orellana — is almost classified among extractive 
products. Its production, as seen from the exportation, is 
a somewhat varying one. 

A very easy improvement, removing exclusively the color- 
ing part and diminishing the work which the present ma- 
nipulation exacts, would bring with the superiority of the 
commercial article an elevation in its price and increase of 
its production. The former cultivation of indigo and saf- 
fron has disappeared, the profit arising therefrom not being 
adequate to the expense of labor expended. 

Allied to agriculture, among all Arian people, the cattle- 
raising industry commences to develop itself in a notable 
manner in the fine campos of the high river Branco, Teff£, 
Olivenca, Tapajds, Obidos, Alemquer, Monte-Alegre, Aqui- 
qui, besides the large island of Marajd, which supplies the 
market of Para. For want of minute statistics, the pastoral 
riches of the valley cannot be estimated ; it is supposed, 



\ 



Agriculture. 143 

however, that they are not inferior to 600,000 head of cattle 
and 25,000 horses. 

Overflowing are the fountains of the extractive industry 
of Amazonia ! 

Withal, the most remunerative of its industries is that 
of rubber, whose applications daily increase, and with them 
the search and importance of the precious article. All coun- 
tries seem to vie in the exploration of this product. In 
Africa, Senegal, Sudan, Guin£, Liberia, Niger, Angola, 
Mozambique, and Zanzibar are extracted varieties of an 
apocynea — landolphia, and of a liana — vahea ; in Asia, of 
different ficus, of the urceola esculent a, of calotropis gigantea, 
of chavanezia esculenta, and of conanchum ovalifolium ; in 
Oceania, in Sumatra, Java, Borneo, Sonda, from the varieties 
of ficus, urceola elastica, willughbeia fir ma, dyer a cortulata, 
and calotropis gigantea; in America, Mexico, Honduras, 
San Salvador, Guatemala, and the occidental Andes, from 
castilloa elastica ; in Paraguay, and some parts of Peru, 
Ecuador, Pernambuco, Maranham, Bahia, Minas, from the 
varieties of an apocynea — hancornia, and in Ceara from 
manihot glaziovii. The ficus gameleira in Minas, and the 
earner aria latifolia in Peru, are explored for the same 
purpose. 

In all the Amazon valley, as in the high Orenoco, the 
heveas — h. discolor, h. guyanensis AubL, or syphonia elastica 
Pers., h. pauci-flora, h. benthamiana, h. lutea, h. rigidifolia, 
h. apiculata, and other varieties, the producers of this pre- 
cious gum, whose immense superiority over similar ones, 
proven in repeated experiments, has caused the different 
trials of its acclimation in European possessions and in Asia. 

In realty, Amazonian rubber is of less specific gravity ; it 
suffers less loss in drying for manufacturing purposes, pre- 
senting in its preparation the following relation over similar 
rubber : 



Para . . . 


12% 


Gambia . 


. 24^ 


Madagascar 


28 


Loanda 1st 


*7% 


Sernamby 


• 2$% 


Assam . . 


28 


Colombia . 


20^ 


Ceara 


. 28^ 


Gabon . . 


35 


Java . . . 


22$ 


Africa 


. 2S% 


Borneo . . 


35 



144 



The State of Parci. 



In the same manner the quantitative analysis of the milk of 
hevea gives in relation to that of ficus the following results : 

Hevea Braz. Ficus elastic. 

Gauchu . . 31.70 Gauchu . . 9.57 

Water . . . 56.37 Water . . . 82.30 

Other substances, 11.93 Other substances, 8.13 



100.00 



100.00 



Besides these qualities, it is yet by its elasticity that the 
hevea gum is superior to its similar. 

Always progressively increasing, the development of the 
exploration of this most important commercial product of 
the Amazonia can be deduced by the following ciphers of 
its exportation 

380,160 kilos. 
374,970 " 



1840 

1844 
1848 
1852 
1856 
i860 
1864 
1868 
1872 
1876 
1880 
1884 
1888 
1891 



Doubling every ten yea 
it has yet attained the he 



773,200 

1,633,000 

1,665,000 

2,463,000 

3,413,600 

4,661,200 

5,256,400 

6,175,900 

10,300,000 

10,640,000 

15,014,000 

16,892,000 



*s, nothing indicates, however, that 
ight of its production. Running to 
the central depression, whose waters offer a freer and surer 
navigation, almost all explorers have deviated from the high 
valleys of the Araguaya, Tapaj 6s, and Xingu,from the rivers 
that run from the north, and from many branches of the 
Madeira, filled with cataracts, leaving for tens of leagues in- 
tact, or almost so, vast rubber-tree forests, from which rela- 
tively only a small part is frequented. 

On the other hand, belonging to-day to the enormous 
majority of those which are in active exploration, the same 



Agriadture. 145 

interest which formerly impelled the occasional occupants, 
who disputed their possession, to take the greatest immediate 
possible profit, exhausting the trees by a barbarous bleeding, 
at present obliges their proprietors to care better for them, 
looking rather for the continuous and lasting income 
to be derived from them. The trees are then better cared 
for and the new growing ones are watched with interest. 

The existence of those large rubber-tree forests, the sensi- 
ble method now adopted in their treatment, and the appro- 
priation of the way to the spontaneous development of the 
heveas make us believe, that the quantity of the production 
of rubber for a long time will depend on two factors, viz., the 
search of the material and the labor question. 

In the tables of exportation of extracting industry, cas- 
tanha nuts figure next. An almond of an enormous lecy- 
thidea, — bertholletia excelsa — supplies a very fine and abund- 
ant oil, perhaps without rival in lubricating machines, and its 
alimental mass is used for culinary purposes and in confec- 
tionery. 

Less abundant are the sapucaya nuts — Lecythis ollaria, L., 
from which are exported oily and nutritious nuts, similar to 
those of the castanha, but of more agreeable taste. From 
the bark of both, a tow is prepared, useful for calking. The 
wood is employed in naval constructions. 

A small bean of the dipterix odorata, tonka-bean, also con- 
stitutes an ; mportant extracting product, the procuring of 
which daily increases. It is used in perfumery and tobacco, 
to which it gives an appreciated odor and taste. Its very 
aromatic oil is used in Brazil, like its almonds to preserve 
any object from insects. Its wood is used in joinery and 
civil constructions. 

Another extractive product, the puxuri, is the colytedone 
of two laurineas, very common in the valley of the River 
Negro, the nectandra puchtiry major and the nect. puck. 
mi?tor. More delicate than the larger, in odor and in savour, 
is the smaller variety ; they are both applied in stomachic 
affections, and their aromatic oil volatilizes with the greatest 
facility. 



146 The State of Par d. 

Their wood has not yet been employed ; it must, however, 
be as good as other nectandras in civil constructions. 

Vanilla — vanilla aromatica — sarsaparilla, and japecanga — 
smylax, precious bark — cryptocaria pretiosa, Mart., the 
abutua, — cocculus dichroa, Mart., the copahyba — copahyph- 
eras officinalis, form a part of the extractive products of ex- 
portation to foreign countries. Innumerable, however, are 
those which the Brazilian therapeutics obtain from this 
valley : amongst others, the caferana — tachia guyanensis, a 
powerful antifebrile ; the acapu — andira Aubletii, the cunami 
— phyllantus cunami, and the caapid — dorstenia multiformis, 
Milq., anodynes ; the carana — anyris car ana or thrithrinax ?, 
the jutahy — hymencea cur bar il, the maracuja, assu — passiflora 
alata, the apihy, hydrocotyle umbelata, used in the affections 
of the respiratory organs ; the amapd, mapuria guyanensis, 
the anani — simphonia globullifera — Lima Filho, employed in 
cancerous wounds and pains; the mucuna — mucuna urens, 
and cip6 guira — bygonia guira, drastics ; the manaca — fran- 
cisca uniflora, a powerful antisyphilitic ; the jambu-assu — 
epilantus oleracia — an anti-escorbutic and anti-asthmatic ; the 
symaruba — simaruba officinalis, powerful against chronic in- 
testinal affections ; besides many others, which, recently 
obtained from the Indians and not yet scientifically studied, 
are nevertheless employed by popular therapeutics, such as 
the ararani, very powerful against dropsy ; the assupd, a 
violent antifebrile ; and the barimb£, of extraordinary effect 
upon the nervous and cerebral systems. 

Very fine oils are furnished by the extractive industry and 
their enumeration would be endless. Besides those already 
quoted we will notice that of cacao, utilized in medical 
preparations ; that of andiroba — carapa guyanensis, yellow 
in color, and extremely bitter, excellent for illumination, also 
medicinal ; that of jupaty — sagus toedigera, a fixed red, bit- 
ter, also medicinal and used for illumination ; that of jacare" 
copahyba — calaphylum brasiliensis, a fixed dark-green, pre- 
ferred for calking ; that of pataua — cenocarpus pataua Mart, 
fixed, without odor, light-yellow, transparent, used for culi- 
nary purposes ; as well as assahy — euterpe oleracia, and that 



Agriculture. 147 

of bacaba — cenocarpus bacaba, the former fixed dark-green 
and slightly bitter, and the second light-green and of an 
agreeable savour. Aromatic are those of vanilla — vanilla 
aromatica, dark red ; cloves — per sea caryophyllata, red ; sassa- 
fras — nectandra cymbarum, bright yellow ; balm — myrosper- 
mum erythroxylum, red ; umiry — umirium balsamiferum, 
white, transparent, and so abundant that it falls from the 
tree by itself ; with different properties that of rubber [hevea 
brasiliensis ; of ucuuba — myristica off.; of macucu — ilex ma- 
cucua ; of miritys — mauritias ; and of the two astrocaryum, 
the tucum and the tucuma. 

Not less magnificent is the wealth of textile fibres. In 
palm trees, the tucum — astrocaryum vulgare ; the jauary — 
astrocaryum jauary ; the macaiiba — acrocomia spherocarpa ; 
the mauritias — flexuosa- and aculeata, produce fibres of ad- 
mirable fineness, resistance, and brilliancy. From the inaja 
— maximitiana regia, from burity — mauritia vinifera, from 
maraja — bactris, from mucaja — acrocomia Icesospatha, from 
tucuma — astrocaryum tucuman, other fibres are extracted 
for hats, baskets, ropes, and various other industries. The 
piassava — attalea funifera, and the pataua — cenocarpus 
pataud, Mart, furnish the strongest ropes for the navy. 

In bromelias, numerous species of the kind ananassa and 
bilbergia, known under the general name of gravatas, or 
crauatas, furnish, as does the agave pita, fibres of extreme 
whiteness, resistance, and delicacy. 

In malvaceas, urticaceas, amomas, and leguminosas, in the 
same way can be found an equal abundance of textile ma- 
terial appropriated to all purposes ; the mucana, — mucuna 
urens, the ambira — xylopia cerica, the murord, — bauhinia, 
the embauba — cecropia, produce very strong fibres for ropes ; 
the uaixyma — urema lobata, and the urucu, — bixa orelana, 
give fibres for tissues and also for ropes ; the araticu-cortiga 
— anoma palustris, the cocoa-nut tree — cocos nuciferas, the 
imbe — arum epiphites, the jacitara — desmonchus macracantus, 
the malvarisco — spheralia cispt, the tauary — lecythis bignonia, 
and many others, present the greatest variety of useful fibres 
for many industries. 



148 



The State of Par d. 



Silky, satin-like, and of an exceeding tenuity and beauty 
are the cottons which involve the seeds of the capsular fruits 
of monguba and sumauma — bombax munguba, Mart ; and 
eriodendron sumauma. Raw material of great abundance, 
and already utilized in Brazil for the manufacture of costly 
threads and twists, it contains the invaluable succedaneum of 
beaver for velvety and luxurious felts. 

Endless would be the enumeration of the woods that can 
be found in the forests of Amazonia, of which the collections 
made can give no idea of the simultaneous existence of so 
many varied and precious species, the fineness, beauty, and 
satin-like texture, the hardness, resistance, and multiple 
applications to which they can be used. 

Independent of the statistics of the direct commerce of 
the market of Manaos, from those of the intermunicipal com- 
merce of the two states in local consumption, etc., the part 
of the Amazonian production entered in 1891 in the market 
of Para was the following : 



RURAL INDUSTRY. 



Mandioca . 








14,519,960 litres 


Cacao 








4,476,233 kilogrs 


Cane alcohol 








1,319,642 litres 


Tobacco . 








299,917 kilogrs. 


Rice 








456,720 " 


Beans 








280,440 


Corn 








178,720 litres 


Molasses . 








95,715 " 


Guarana . 








34,522 kilogrs. 


Coffee 








i,757 " 


Gergelim . 








720 " 


Cotton 








200 " 


FARMING INDUSTRY 


Cattle 16,143 heads. 


Horses 








• 357 " 


Hogs 








. 1,251 " 


Poultry . 








. 42,480 " 


Cattle hides 








. 22,500 " 



Agriculture. 149 

EXTRACTIVE INDUSTRY OF VEGETABLE PRODUCTS. 

Rubber 13,623,690 klgm. 

Nuts 5,466,800 litres. 

Oils of copahyba, umiry, etc., etc. 65,070 " 

Cumaru (tonka-beans) . . 34,685 klgm. 

Sarsaparilla, pitch, vanilla, etc. 2,500 klgm. 

Pirarucu (a sort of codfish), mixira, turtle, and many 
others are not noted. 

As in former times in America, according to the necessi- 
ties imposed by several degrees of social advancement, 
several natural products were submitted to culture, so also 
the social needs of the present day go on creating in 
Amazonia a new agriculture. 

Still in its primitive period of evolution, scarcely begin- 
ning to form, or to take from extractive industry its com- 
ponent elements, its opulent promises may already be 
appreciated from the comparison of the commercial tables. 
Herewith are given the ciphers, relative to the time of old 
cultures, to the date in which, with the steam navigation, 
the economical conditions of the great valley were pro- 
foundly modified, and up to the present date : 

YEARS. VALUE OF EXPORTATION. 

1819 452:7i6$ooo 

1827 488:2 54$ooo 

Annual mean of 1849-1854 2,644:7551000 

1880 21,304:3611000 

1 88 1 25,447:246$ooo 

1890 37>3i3:530$ooo 

1 89 1 60,463: 1 86$ooo 

Through the movement that has been effected several 
methods were resolved upon to still further its acceleration : 
The Emissor Bank of the North being established with 
the aim of aiding rural explorations ; the land laws were 
decreed classifying the unoccupied lands of the two states, 
and rendering their acquisition easy ; a wagon-road connect- 
ing the capital of the Amazon, with the campos of the high 
Rio Branco has been opened ; another at Alemquer has 



150 The State of Parct. 

been commenced ; this will extend to the northern campos 
country, at present 50 kilometres. The plans for a branch of 
the Braganga R.R. to Salinas have been ordered and made ; 
this will connect the capital of Para with the very rich 
agricultural valleys of the East. In Marapanim the prelimi- 
nary works for the foundation of a model colony, destined 
for European immigration, have been executed ; and the 
construction of a wagon-road, that connects it with the Para 
R.R. and with river navigation has also been initiated ; the 
foundation of an agricultural school and the opening of an 
Exposition of Amazonian products have also been resolved. 

Another measure, as fruitful as are these, was voted by 
Congress of the state of Para : the construction of a railroad 
to the state of Matto-Grosso. 

Upon consideration of the value of these measures, the 
progress revealed in the statistics, the excellence of the 
climate, the natural wealth, astonishing to all who visit this 
valley, the comparative conditions of life in different coun- 
tries, have occasioned the spontaneous words of one of the 
most distinguished sons of this happy region, quoted by 
Alfred Marc : 

" Amazonia," says the Baron of Maraj6, " is a new world, 
which will open before the close of the century. While in 
Europe the area of cultivated lands is narrow, life itself 
hedged round with growing difficulties, misery clamoring 
loudly for emigration, Amazonia offers lands of untold 
wealth ; a marvellous facility for transport and communica- 
tion ; two annual harvests to the greater part of culturists, 
and a climate whose mildness exempts the workman from 
the expenditure and precaution necessary against the rigors 
of winter." 

These words contain the solution of the social problems, 
which agitate Europe ; they are the programme of the future 
of Amazonia ! 



Note. 

The figures on pages 102-108 refer to the total produc- 
tions of the state of Para, entered in the market of Bel£m ; 
and those on page 149, to those of Amazonia in general, 
entered in the same market, from those of internal con- 
sumption, the re-exportations for the interior being 
deducted. 



